Tom Doak's "Anatomy of a Golf Course"

[Matt Waidmann]

Came across this book while cleaning the house today.  Forgot I had it, but when I was younger and wanting to immerse myself in how to build a golf course this book was my bible.  Really great illustrations of some of the best golf holes in the world.  For a teenager, this was a great education and helped fuel my passion for golf course architecture.  I'm sure there's been a thread on this book before, but did this book help influence anyone else's views? 

[Peter Pallotta]

Matt -- I'm no expert, but to me "Anatomy" is the single best and most cohesive primer about gca available. Ever since I read it, I've had this lurking question in the back of my mind, i.e. why do I continue to read and/or post on gca.com when anything relevant that can be meaningfully read or said about the subject has already been said (and read) in that book?

That's one of the reasons I do so much 'beard pulling' on here, i.e. it is the one aspect/approach that TD managed to avoid! What's left for me now is to ask questions like: "What are the Top 100 Courses (Modern) from the Perspective of Astronauts in a Space Station who have just ingested Mushrooms after having immersed themselves in Post-Jungian Transpersonal Psychology"....for whatever that's worth

Peter
 

[Thomas Dai]

When my son expressed a bit of interest in how golf courses were designed and built the first book I passed to him to read was..........TD's 'Anatomy of a golf course'. A belated thank you to TD for writing it!
Atb

[Tom_Doak]

When I was in Argentina, a member at The Jockey Club gave me a Spanish-language translation of the book.  It has also been translated into Japanese, Korean, and Finnish (!) though I don't think there are very many copies of those.

The publisher still sells about 1000 copies per year of the book in English, 23 years after it was released.  It was a late bloomer.

[Mike_Young]

When I was in Argentina, a member at The Jockey Club gave me a Spanish-language translation of the book.  It has also been translated into Japanese, Korean, and Finnish (!) though I don't think there are very many copies of those.

The publisher still sells about 1000 copies per year of the book in English, 23 years after it was released.  It was a late bloomer.

It's a good solid well written book.....good job (and that does not make me a BB)

[James Bennett]

It is a book where each copy gets read by several different people over time.
Its circulation is a multiple of the copies sold.

[Garland Bayley]

It's #2 of my top 2. The Spirit of St. Andrews is my #1.

Tom, you just have to relate humorous stories ala Dr. Mac to raise your standing.

[Mark Hissey]

It's the best book on architecture that I've read by a country mile.

[Tom_Doak]

Tom, you just have to relate humorous stories ala Dr. Mac to raise your standing.

I wrote the book when I was 30 and had three courses to my name.  [That's one reason why it is the rare example of a book on design with lots of diagrams of other people's golf holes.]  I would have some more stories now, I guess, but I've never considered re-writing it; I doubt I could do as good a job again.

[Garland Bayley]

Tom, you just have to relate humorous stories ala Dr. Mac to raise your standing.

I wrote the book when I was 30 and had three courses to my name.  [That's one reason why it is the rare example of a book on design with lots of diagrams of other people's golf holes.]  I would have some more stories now, I guess, but I've never considered re-writing it; I doubt I could do as good a job again.

The Spirit of St. Andrews was a later in career product of Dr. Mac. We'll look forward to the future edition where you tell the stories.