( 7 reviews )
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Posted: Feb 13 2009
This informative and readable book helps golfers make sense of the tactics and strategies that course designers employ to make their lives difficult. For those who have never given much thought to what makes a course or a hole particularly difficult or interesting (beyond, "it's long", or "it's over water") this book is an eye-opener. Shackelford provides detailed histories and evolutions of the different design schools (from "natural" and "penal" to "heroic" and "the future"), while using classic courses and holes to illustrate his writing. What makes the book particularly compelling, however, is that he takes all of this information and uses it to show how it informed him in creating his first real-world design at Moorpark, CA's Rustic Canyon. This leap from scholarly design theory to practical use serves to solidify these ideas in the reader's head. And, if you actually endeavor to play Rustic Canyon, the information and theories in this book come to life and become part of your larger golf knowledge. -Bryan Fryklund, author of The Golf Fanatic's Guide to Hawaii
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Posted: Dec 28 2008
Great classic book. Could read even more on the subject by this author. Dr. Kenneth Wehr
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jan 10 2007
Geoff Shackelford is an excellent writer and explains golf course design in simple and yet direct terms. It is a very interesting book for those who have an interest in what makes a well designed golf course.
