best book on golf architecture...and why?

[ian andrew (Guest)]

I've just read Doak's Confidential Guide.... and Shackelford's book on Cypress Point. Two books that I have really enjoyed. Like most people I started with Cornish and Whitten's The Architects of Golf. My next book, and favourite was Golf Architecture in America by George Thomas. It remains my favourite, but I'm starting to wonder if it was because of it being my first real book on golf architecture. I noticed today in an old Geoff Shackelford article he mentions his favourite books:

-The Links, Robert Hunter
-The Spirit of St. Andrews, Alister MacKenzie
-Golf Architecture in America, George Thomas
-The Architectural Side of Golf, H.N. Wethered and Tom Simpson
-The Anatomy of a Golf Course, Tom Doak

I have read all but one of these (a mistake I will shortly correct). I'm looking for another book I might have missed (or should even re-read). My question is what is your favourite book on golf architecture and why?

[David_Elvins]

A question like this gets asked so often on this site.

Please can we have a book review section on the GCA site.  It really would be a worthy addition to the site.

Ran, Would it be hard to do?

[Brian Phillips]

My favourite has got to be:

The Links, Robert Hunter.

I own quite a few architecture books but I keep coming back to this one.

It is one of the only architecture books written by someone not really in the business.  Although he plugs MacKenzie a few time in the book he really did seem to just write what was good architecture.  Many other books including MacKenzie's books are very personal opinions.

I think that Golf Course Architecture in America is overated.

My guru Jeff Brauer will be proud ....

[Mark_Huxford]

I agree with Brian on Robert Hunter. The second half of The Links gets very interesting, where he starts talking about the purpose of hazards.

The Spirit of St Andrews however is probably the first book I would tell someone to buy. Now that I have read The Life And Work Of Dr Alister Mackenzie I would urge them to buy the two together.

Tom Doak's Anatomy Of A Golf Course can stand up with any of the books out there although I would have liked to have seen some of the elements in the section on construction given their own chapters.

Where have people found The Architectural Side of Golf?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Brian,

Come out to California and see Riviera. I think that GAIA would suddenly have a whole new meaning for you if you did. I get about the same from both The Links and GAIA. Just absolutely mesmerizing stuff for me.

But, just like trying to pick out a #1 favorite golf course, picking a #1 favorite golf book is about the same. Especially if it is written at a time when the art was so young and new, yet at its ultimate peak. (Its getting there again thankfully, but golfers have to get past the green is good stuff.)

One of the great fortunes I have had in my life is to have lived 15 minutes away from the Ralph Miller Golf Library. Especially when you consider that the first times I picked-up allof the great books to see the author's actual signature in them. The saddest thing of all is that normal everyday walk-in visitors could have cared less, and that was unfortunate.

Just think about it, I have held books that C.B. MacDonald, Old Tom Morris, Dr. Alister Mackenzie, George Thomas, Robert Hunter have actual touched!

Wow!

I also held Tillie's glass negative from his famous picture that he took of Old Tom Morris.

I don't think this game could get any grander!

[THuckaby2]

One of the great fortunes I have had in my life is to have lived 15 minutes away from the Ralph Miller Golf Library. Especially when you consider that the first times I picked-up allof the great books to see the author's actual signature in them. The saddest thing of all is that normal everyday walk-in visitors could have cared less, and that was unfortunate.

Tommy, you sure a piece of work, and mean that as a compliment.  Having played Industry Hills too many times (I know, most people think ONE is too many at either course there and I don't disagree) I can tell you that it's worse than you say from my perspective.  When I tried to get friends to go with me into the Miller, you would have thought I told them to go to church.  "Golf Library?? hell no - get me another beer."  My friends were not unique.  I don't know that this is "sad", per se... as much as it is just reality.  History is best left to historians.  The general public lives in the now.

And as for:

"Just think about it, I have held books that C.B. MacDonald, Old Tom Morris, Dr. Alister Mackenzie, George Thomas, Robert Hunter have actual touched!"

I too have likely held most of those - oh yeah, I did indeed spend some time in the Miller myself way back when (high school and college research projects as well as curiousity)... and I didn't even take much note of the signatures, other than as a "cool" note.  I was young, forgive me.

As for favorite book, others have tried to educate me here, but I bought Hunter's THE LINKS and well, let's just say I could put it down.  It bored me and to me was just too archaic.  On the other hand, I got a LOT out of Doak's ANATOMY OF A GOLF COURSE - that to me is still my favorite "architecture" book.  I'd guess this says more about me as it does about the books... but these older texts just seem "out of date" to me... Hey, I was a college history major, I dig the past and I understand the "bedrock" points Hunter makes... but it just seems irrelevant, particularly the parts about land purchase, etc. which can best be described as "quaint."  Doak's book to me has far more relevance today.

For that reason, I haven't been tempted to purchase Golf Architecture in America.  I fear it too will be archaic.

Go ahead, blast me.  Just a different viewpoint, that's all.

TH

[Craig Van Egmond]

Mark,
          I found my copy of The Architectual Side of Golf at the out of print dealers at Barnesandnoble.com.  It is kind of hit and miss.

       Here is a great site for searching that Dan King gave a while back:  www.bookfinder.com.

Tom,
        Anatomy of a Golf Course is easily the best architecture book of our lifetime and a much easier read than the classics. I found Golf Arch in America a tough read, but really enjoyed the MacKenzie, Ross, Hunter books as well as the Tillinghast trilogy of books.  

I also enjoyed the books Hazards and Some Essays on Golf Course Architecture.

[THuckaby2]

Thanks, Craig.  I too enjoyed each of the MacKenzie books and being the MacHead I am, well, that was a given.  But I went into THE LINKS with the same excitement, given Hunter's huge connections to MacKenzie and well... I guess "tough read" is a good way to put it.  I still haven't finished the book, can't bring myself to pick it up again.  I guess it's just a bit to "thick" for my tastes also.

So I guess I am indeed just fine leaving GAIA to the apostles and purists like Tommy, eh?

TH

[Dunlop_White]

"The Links", by Robert Hunter, as mentioned, is one of the best. So is George Thomas' "Golf Architecture in America".

However, I believe that Brad Klein's books, "Discovering Donald Ross" and "Rough Meditations" are as good as any! Geoff Shackelford's, "Golden Age of Golf Architecture" is good too!

There are so many good ones, especially the old one's by the likes of Herbert Warren Wind and Bernard Darwin. Check out Michael Thomas' "Five Foot Shelf" under "In My Opinion" for a list of many, many more great ones which range from architecture and instruction to fiction. It can be accessed through the following link:

[url]http://www.golfclubatlas.com/opinionmoore.html[url]
            

[brad_miller]

Sleepingbearpress is due to re-print "The Architectural Side of Golf" and "Golf Architecture"--Mackenzie soon. Just bought my first books from them and they have been great! Any questions contact Skip DeWall at SBP.

[JohnV]

Mark,

The Architectural Side of Golf was reprinted in the 1950s as "Design For Golf", same authors.  You might have better luck finding it in the used book websites.

[Craig Rokke]

Tommy et al.

What is the current staus of the Miller Library? And if
it is "open" again, what town is it in? Thx.

[John Foley]

When I started to get involved in the DG and looking at the wealth of books out there, the first one I picked up that clarified it for me was Geoff Shackleford's Golden Age of Golf Architecture. It's almost a "Where did US based Golf Architecture get it start from 101" text book. Once I was done reading it it was like "Now I understand why NGLA is so special, and why did so many people have their hands in Pine Valley, and who exactly are Raynor & Banks". It's a great starting point to this endeavour.

The other one (which I can't find a copy of yet!) is Whitten's Architects of Golf. Great reference to use and go back to.

[Craig Rokke]

John F-I believe I recently saw a used copy of "Architects" on Amazon for the cool sum of $192.50. Evidently there are not a lot of them floating around.

[ian andrew (Guest)]

Tommy,

I had a similar experience to yours, but at Muirfield Golf Club in Scotland. They have a great collection of first editions, you could sit in a chair and read all day.....actually I did. Its a real treat to pick up a leather bound original, somhow the book is even more enjoyable.

I have Geoff's "Golden Age...." book on order. The Klien book's are a great idea. Thanks

[Jeff Mingay]

The research and writings that Brad Klein, Tom Doak and Geoff Shackelford have done in recent years is monumental. These three alone have resurrected a widespread appreciation for the master architects and the great courses of yesteryear.

So, pick up: "Rough Meditation" and "Discovering Donald Ross..." by Klein; "The Anatomy of a Golf Course", "The Confindential Guide..." and "The Life and Work of Dr. Alister MacKenzie" by Doak; and all of Shackelford's books. They're ALL "must reads" for any serious student of golf course architecture. Period.

[higkgins]

I can't get any work done !! I'm currently reading both "Rough Meditations" and "Discovering Donald Ross" .... I'm hooked on this stuff !!  

[Tim_Weiman]

Brian Phillips:

Can you share what you didn't like about Thomas' book?

[BillV]

I have to vote for Tom Doak's Anatomy of a Golf Course.  A classic primer.  I have recommended it to many an Architectural novice (Which reminds me of about 6 e-mails I need to send!)

The old ones don't read as well today to the uninitiated.  

Not to swell Tom's head  , The Confidential Guide gives people a consistent, reasonable feedback on courses they have seen and will get to see.  (Pebble Beach mercifully is not a 10.  Most novices are dumbfounded that it is not on my short list of best/favorite courses).

My first?

RTJ's drawing accompanied piece in Herb Wind (Ed.)'s The Complete Golfer was my printed intro to this fray, but the first book was the original Cornish and Whitten The Golf Course. Both were very compelling and  made me seek out others.

[Paul Richards]

My new favorite is "Discovering Donald Ross" by Bradley Klein.

Tom Doak's "Confidential Guide" is a must-read.

Dr. Michael Hurdzan's "Golf Course Architecture" hasn't been
mentioned yet, but it is worth reading as well.

[THuckaby2]

The old ones don't read as well today to the uninitiated.  

You think I'm gonna let that one just slip by, Bill?

I dig the old ones IN GENERAL - a certain quite old volume I donated to redanman world HQ could be my all-time fave - it's just Hunter's book that doesn't read well!

Not that I consider myself "initiated"... ok, never mind!
 

TH

[BillV]

Huckster

I am eternally grateful for the contribution of Scotland's Gift, Golf: Reminiscences 1872-1927 (The complete, unwieldy title) to the redanman.world.library.edu.  I am still saving for an original copy (about $2k).  I think it is an historical book on golf in general rather than an architecture book and I love to read the old man's ramblings.

But I really think Hunter, Thomas and MacKenzie read a little tough to the newbie to architecture.  I will stand with that statement as the over-ripe toh-mah-toes fly in my general direction.

If we ever stage a live action play of the dead architects, I get to play MacDonald, one of my absolute heroes.  I look scarily like him with a tweeed cap and mustache and that lunging swing of mine that shows up about #15 as my back gets tired .

[THuckaby2]

Perfect, Bill!

And you're right, Scotland's Gift shouldn't be called an architecture book, and damn right these old texts read tough.  Hunter's language seems Shakespearean to me!

I can see you as CBMac, oh yes.  But who plays MacKenzie?  

TH

[Allan Long]

Cornish and Whitten's Architects of Golf, MacKenzie's Spirit of St. Andrews, Thomas' Golf Architecture in America, Klein's Discovering Donald Ross...all good reads. As are anything by Geoff Shackelford and Tom Doak. One that I have not seen mentioned though was Daniel Wexler's Missing Links. What makes them good? Personally, they make me want to keep reading more on the subject.

[Nick_Ficorelli]

Trying to find Colt and Co.....anyone successful recently?