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The Anatomy of a Golf Course
by Tom Doak
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Burford Books (1992-06)
ISBN: 1558211462
EAN: 9781558211469
Dewy Decimal #: 712.5
Hardcover: 255 pages
SKU: 08080203
Condition: Very Good Very Good
Comments: Hardback in very good condition with no markings. Dust jacket in very good condition with minor shelf wear. Tight binding and clear crisp text. Very nice book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Behind every golf hole lies an influence on every golfer's game that few golfers ever contemplate: the course architect. Why a hole dog-legs left and not right, why bunkers end up where they are, the length of a hole, the view from the tee- all these factors and many more are the result of choices made by the golf architect to challenge, and sometimes intimidate, any golfer's game. Tom Doak, one of America's youngest and most successful golf architects, here discusses his craft and explains the strategies behind a golf architect's decisions. Knowing why a course a course is laid out is critical to how the course should be played. Knowledgeable golfers and beginners alike will find The Anatomy of a Golf Course fascinating- and stroke-saving- reading.
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Amazon.com Review
"It is up to the golf architect," writes Ben Crenshaw in his foreword to Tom Doak's fascinating discussion of course design, "to present us with a thinking contest as well as a physical one." Like a puppeteer willing to raise the curtain on the strings he pulls, Doak reveals reveals the secrets of how. The how, as it turns out, is the easy part. It's the demonic thinking behind the whys that makes this so engaging--and useful. Doak's explanation of the ways a good designer has to muck with golfers' minds is truly absorbing, and is the kind of information that better players can embrace and make work for them.
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Customer Reviews
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golf inside information
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-09-22
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
After reading this book you'll have a greater understanding of design and layout of golf courses. This information will be useful to you as you attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the game and the required techniques to master it. This book is written by a prominent architect who explains in depth the reason some shots are accepted, while others are rejected. Many strokes will be saved as a result of this read.
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Amazing book
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-02-18
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is my second copy of this book as I lost my first one since I take it everywhere. It is great just to pick up and turn to a random chapter. There is so much in here that I never knew about golf course design, and it really made me appreciate what goes into making a good golf course great. Tom Doak truly is a master of his craft.
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Excellent gift
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-01-12
I bought this gift for my nephew who is majoring in landscape architecture. From the moment he opened the gift, he began reading it immediately and couldn't put it down. That tells me this is an excellent book and one worth purchasing......
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Perhaps THE primer of golf course architecture
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-12-05
Quite simply the best-written, most useful book on the often confusing world of golf course architecture. Just as with any art, taste is certainly subjective. This book looks objectively at criteria used to appreciate this very exciting aspect of golf. An appreciation of golf course architecture is essential to understanding why certain golf courses appear mundane and even dull or uninspired to the uninitiated eye and yet are revered by connoisseurs. Tom has a very good style of written education that is rooted in his strong opinionation on the subject. He truly believes in himself and what he writes. This book can enrich the appreciation of golf for almost any player.
It's a pity that he doesn't have the ability to update his out-of-print Confidential Guide to Golf courses. Paired with this book one understands an erudite point of view based upon the well-researched and extremely deeply-rooted opinions of perhaps the world's most able golf course architect. Just as in the anatomical sciences of living beings, the golf course is a living being and one can study it. Today, Doak and his team are not afraid to take chances and think outside the box or at least deep into the archives, unlike virtually all other "top architects" of today to create golf courses that are fun to play for nearly all golfers - the ideal of his idol Alister Mackenzie.
Tutored by Pete Dye, he is the pick of the Dye litter and can write well to boot. He gives any golfer literate in the English language a heads-up on this exciting aspect of golf appreciation which escapes perhaps 90% of the American golf public. I was way deep into golf architecture before I got either of Tom's books, but they remain the two I recommend above all others because this book is so concise and the companion volume is so outrageous. Unfortunately you have to dig up a (very expensive used) copy of Confidential Guide if you are unfamiliar with the Doak scale because it isn't in here (10 point scale). Before Doak, everything above a 6 is a "10" to most people. (Basically it's a logarithmic scale in which 3 is average, 5 is "average good" and everything above a "7" is well worth going out of your way to see.) Everyone has favorite golf courses and understanding the theories of architecture and strategies will give a deeper, more meaningful appreciation.
At least this book can teach you what to look for. Your golf-stricken loved one will thank you for it again and again if he or she has not yet read it. Most people I know have read it multiple times after the first read in a single session.
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The Amazing Mr. Doak
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-10-11
Tom Doak as author and golf course architect never fail to amaze. He's the best when it comes to the game of golf.
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