Secrets of the Great Golf Course Architects: A Treasury of the World's Greatest Golf Courses by History's Master Designers

By The American Society of Golf Course Architects and Michael Patrick Shiels

Book Overview

The tests a golfer faces on the course are the direct result of the challenges originally faced by the golf course architect, whether they be complicated terrain, forces of nature, budget limitations,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1629144681
• ISBN13: 9781629144689
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.4" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Nice to Have, makes a great gift for golf architecture enthusiasts

What the book actually contains is a large collection of short anecdotes from and a few interviews with ASGCA members. While a few of them are plain boring the vast majority offer interesting insights into the actual work of golf architects, the problems encountered by them in their work and some of their more unusual assignments (e.g. building a course within a few weeks for Ferdinand Marcos' birthday). The "problem stories" mostly rank around "unconventional" travel (quite interesting), dangerous creatures (not so interesting) and ignorant non-golfing clients (fascinating that some people commission golf courses without having any clue about the game). A few of the architects also offer interesting views on their design philosophy. The illustrations include many nice sketches and drawings as an example for many a contributor's work, however they are left without much explanation and don't have to do anything with the text. If you want to learn about architecture there are better books out there and the contents of this one cannot really be considered "secrets" (rarely told stories would be a more accurate take). All in all this still makes an eclectic and very nice read, however it's certainly not mandatory reading for architecture enthusiast, which probably makes it a great gift for this kind of people - chances are that thus they don't have it already.