Booklist
Shackelford is a golf journalist and traditionalist worried that equipment and television are degrading golf into a sport played by thrashers rather than thinkers. In this enjoyable effort to spread appreciation for golf-course architecture, Shackelford preaches a simple dogma: a course should be naturalistic, replete with tempting, playable shot options. Knowing that golf aficionados can sense the difference between playing an assembly-line course built during the 1970s and a mature one from the 1920s, Shackelford puts flesh on the bones of their intuition with a review of design schools. He extols the "strategic" school, exemplified by St. Andrews or Augusta National, which he justifies with detailed assessments of the famous Road Hole and Amen Corner, respectively. Caustic about designs he disdains, Shackelford is more than an armchair critic because he helped create a new public course in Southern California, illustrated, as are his other topics, with a profusion of sketches and photographs. An insightful instilling of knowledge, Shackelford's history and analysis will score low with the cerebral segment of golfdom--and, remember, low is good. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
To a majority of the millions of golfers around the world, the subject of golf course design often seems foreign and intimidating. Yet, the overwhelming reason cited for playing golf is an attraction to the beautiful and often ingeniously designed courses where the game is played. Grounds for Golf is distinct from other golf design-related books in that it covers a wide variety of topics in an informative, flowing nar-rative that will interest all golfers. Noted golf writer Geoff Shackel-ford's text is supplemented with photography, classic anec-dotes, famous quotations, and informative hole depic-tions by architect Gil Hanse. Readers finally have a course design primer that adds to their enjoyment of golf's lore while also introducing the fundamentals of golf architecture in an interactive format that will help their games.
