under the Architecture Timeline and the Feature Interview sections.
Kevin's recently released book entilted Tommy's Honor is the winner of the prized GolfClubAtlas.com Book Award for 2007. This distinguished award was first issued to Daniel Wexler for Missing Links in 2000. Since then, I don't remember if we've awarded one or not
If we did, congratulations to the past winners!
However, the three hundred pages of absorbing reading provided by Tommy's Honor reminded me to dust off this highly cherished - albeit rare
- award. How good is Cook's writing? I stopped after fifty pages to Google him and see what else he has written.
A friend in Pinehurst that goes to St. Andrews every fall read it and told me that Tommy's Honor enabled him to get to know people that he thought he already knew. The personalities of Old Tom, Young Tom, Allan Robertson, Willie Park, etc. jump off the pages. Even Joy's extremely well done book The Scrapbook of Old Tom Morris doesn't shed as much light on Old Tom's personality and the times as this one does, at least for me.
For fans of golf course architecture, an understanding of the roots of golf course architecture at courses like The Old Course at St. Andrews and Prestwick is crucial. Essentially, it is the base from which golf course architecture grew. Old Tom DIRECTLY influenced Ross, Colt, Mackenzie, Macdonald, and Tillinghast. Not bad
for a man who grew up thinking he would likely be a hand-loom weaver. As Cook writes, Old Tom's 'chief contribution to the game may have been in course design, a multi-billion business that grew from the barrow, spade and shovel he used at Prestwick and St. Andrews.'
Prestwick and The Old Course both remain remarkably fresh to play decade after decade, thanks in part to their unusual features and the distinctive questions they ask. Will courses being built today be equally fascinating to study one hundred years from now? I doubt it, not unless a few more unusual/unique features are allowed to surface/are incorporated during the design process.
The Architecture Timeline section of this site starts with the introduction of the gutta in 1848. Cook's book captures the period of golf from 1840 through 1875 (the men, the sport, the equipment, the courses, greenkeeping) as well as any - it is highly recommended and should be required reading for all of us with an interest in golf course architecture.
Cheers,