The World Golf Atlas (New Version) Bigger-Better-Beautiful!

[C. Squier]

I agree Tom....I just received mine last week too and can tell it'll be a great reference in the future, not to mention a great cover-to-cover read right now.  Kudos to the authors on a job well done.  I got mine for $27 shipped at Barnes & Noble and it's a steal at double that. 

[John Burzynski]

OK, hands up - who here like me feels damn guilty that we got this for around $12-13.. or LESS in some cases... as someone said earlier, the paper alone is worth way more than that.

Got my copy over the weekend and yes, I feel guilty as hell.  Not sure why.  If I made a mistake an underpaid Amazon I doubt guilt is what they'd feel...

The book does look to be OUTSTANDING for sure.  And lots of familiar names in the credits.  Very cool, well done gents.

TH

I wouldn't feel too guilty, Amazon is the entity losing the money, not the authors / publisher.    Amazon purchases the book for $x, and sells it for cover price or less, dependent on how much profit they want to make.  I have seen this several times on their site, I think it is less of a computer glitch sometimes than some goofy marketing scheme or loss leader or something.

The book business is cut throat, I worked for a distributor for years that distributed to Barnes & Noble, B Dalton, etc. (OK, dating myself) and it was cut throat then, even worse now with Amazon and others online.

[Tom Huckaby]

Cool - thanks, John.  I had no clue how this all worked.  My guilt is gone.

TH

[John Burzynski]

Now, the unfortunate side is how Amazon and the big boys put the screws to the publishers, and the publishers to the authors, but that is less about a $50 book being sold at $12.95 than about the industry as a whole.  Amazon, Barnes and borders rule the bookworld. 

[Buck Wolter]

Bummer:
We're writing about the order you placed on October 23 2008. Unfortunately, we are unable to ship the item(s) as soon as we expected and need to provide you with a new estimate of when the item(s) may be delivered:
         
  Mark Rowlinson (Author) "World Atlas of Golf: The Greatest Courses
    and How They are Played" [Hardcover]
    Estimated arrival date: 12/03/2008 - 12/11/2008

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this delay.

[TX Golf]

Buck,

I got the same email last night..... bummer!!!!

[Adam Clayman]

It's now available for $25-26

[Gary Slatter]

Love the book, not sure how my copy got to me but thanks whoever did it.  They have good stock in local St Andrews Waterstones.  IMHO the Caribbean is not very accurate, I dropped note to Ben.  But it is well worth 30 pounds

[John Burzynski]

I have spent the last couple of nights engrossed in this book.  Great pics and graphics of the course layouts, some excellent writing, all in all one of the best golf architecture / course books out there. 

Give me the new 'World Atlas of Golf' and Finnegan's 'Where Golf is Great', and I am settled in for the long golfing winter to come.

[Dan Herrmann]

Hey - if any of the guys bumming, I'll sell you mine for $150

This could be The Confidential Guide of '08!

[Michael Whitaker]

My 5 copies arrived today... I wish I had purchased 10!!!

[Jason Topp]

I just found this at a bookstore over lunch.  It looks terrific.  Congratulations to everyone involved with it.

[Chip Gaskins]

I got mine yesterday.  Amazing book.  Simply fantastic.  Kudos to all involved.  Hours and hours and hours of reading ahead.  Thanks for the hard work.

[Rob Rigg]

Just got mine after receiving the "delayed" email from Amazon earlier in the week. I was worried that they would balk on it - $12!!!!

Congrats to all who were involved - the book is incredible and I thoroughly enjoyed the first quick read, especially the pictures of the routings. Looking forward to digging in and re-reading on many occassions.

[Gary Slatter]

Just noticed on one of the maps that Seminole is near Tampa. 

[Britt Rife]

I received mine yesterday and was particularly interested to note which courses were dropped from the full course description treatment.  I see in the introduction that the criteria is now based more upon the significance of the architecture alone, rather than the particular course's place in golf history.  Accordingly, Medinah, Oak Hill, and Inverness were dropped.  A few courses which were relatively new in the last edition (and did not have the historical championship significance of the above-mention three) , like Black Mesa, Kingsbarns, Valderrama and the K-Club were also dropped. There was also a substantial reconfiguration of Continental courses.

[James Bennett]

My order has been dispatched, and will arrive down under on December 29. As FBD would say - yippee.  A late Xmas present.  It is a slow boat from China/USA to OZ!

James B

[Michael Dugger]

I picked a copy up the other day.

This book is epic.  Props to everyone who helped bring it together.

[Matt MacIver]

Received mine via Amazon, which honored the $13 price.  Congrats to everyone involved, wonderful holiday reading. 

Now a comment for the next edition...would it be possible to put a compass on each routing pointing north, and maybe a broad generalization about the wind direction, with arrows or something? 

[James Boon]

I got my copy as a wonderful present from my mum and dad today and its kept me really entertained! Many thanks to everyone involved, especially you guys on here who put in all the hard work!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cheers,

James

[Tommy Williamsen]

I too cut my teeth on the World Atlas of golf more years ago than I care to remember amd he new edition is absolutely splendid. I was somewhat interested the Pat Ruddy's courses at Ballyliffen and others were mentioned but His European club did not even merit a footnote.  Was it an oversight or intentional? 

[Rich Goodale]

Those who want more information on the book, there is a "Feature Interview" for November 2008 with Mark Rowlinson and Daniel Wexler on this site.  Just go to the left, click the tab and enjoy.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Matt, that's a good point and we should bear it in mind for any updates. Thanks, Mark.

[James Boon]

Dan, You don't have to. You can write whatever you like - as we haven't found a publisher it's all in the mind. It's you chance to wonder why they put Course A or Course B into the original or that they rebuilt an original entry out of all recognition (Sea Island, the Australian) or that they got something totally wrong (wasn't that the wrong course for The Homestead?). There was Rich Goodale's favourite, which had the 1st tee of Dornoch in someone's garden. Sean pointed out that the Cross of St George was flying at Porthcawl. My favourite was the stream crossing the 15th fairway at Royal Birkdale, which I think was actually a spectator crossing point during the Open. What fun we'd have! Mark.

Been looking through my copy I got for Christmas, so went back a read some of the other posts and found this one which made me go back to my previous (6th) edition, as I didn’t remember the Royal Dornoch error…

Having a quick browse through the old edition reminded me how many little errors I found on the old graphics. The perspective used for most of the plans didn’t help but some of the grphics looked like they were done by people who had never been near the courses? Thankfully, the new versions graphics for the layouts are much better!

Here are a few other mistakes I spotted in the old edition:

Loch Lomond, this one is generally all over the place with some greens well out of scale with the whole thing!
Royal St George’s, 14th hole has a phantom fairway bunker before the stream?
Royal Pothcawl, the flag actually looks like a diagonal red cross, rather than the cross of St George? Isn’t that St Patricks cross or saltire, which forms part of the union flag but the Irish part???
San Lorenzo, 18th green isn’t the almost island that you have to play too.
Augusta National, 8th hole has greenside bunkers rather than mounds.
TPC Sawgrass, phantom spectator mounds jutting out into lake between 16th and 17th.
Pebble Beech, No trees in play on 18th
Riviera, no bunker in 6th green

And in the Gazeteer, Royal Cinque Ports, 17th and 18th almost side by side.

Thanks to Google Earth etc we can all now have a good look at these courses from abaove (thanks also to Mark R for your Aerial threads), but the better graphics really help the new edition!

Cheers,

James

[Mark_Rowlinson]

James, What you are pointing out is that it is an absolute nightmare making sure everything is spot on. We are bound to have made errors and oversights this time round, as we all have done in the past. Your - and everyone else's - helpful criticisms will, hopefully, reduce the errors next time round, but we'll never get it perfect, however hard we try.