"Golf’s Grand Design," prepared as a companion
volume to the PBS documentary of the same name, expands
upon the information presented in the television
program. Co-authored by Bob Cupp, one of America’s
leading golf course designers, and Ron Whitten, Golf
Digest’s longtime senior editor on golf architecture,
the book features rare sketches and diagrams of golf
holes—some never before published—by 34 past and present
golf architects, including Alister MacKenzie, Pete Dye,
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, Doug
Carrick, Steve Smyers and David McLay Kidd. In each
chapter, based upon one of the drawings, Cupp and
Whitten explore a different facet of the course depicted
and present unique perspectives into the craft and art
of golf course architecture. These sketches are the
vehicles by which design becomes grass. They are not
AutoCAD plottings used to clear permits (full of
technicalities practically indecipherable by everyday
folks), but intimate, immediate and sometimes
idiosyncratic streams of consciousness that are handed
to a bulldozer operator, along with words of
instruction, which become reality; the very crux of golf
design. These drawings seldom survive; ending up as
grocery lists, note pads or even shelf paper. But if one
comes back to the designer after the fact - after the
hole has been played and proclaimed fun, the drawings
become treasures. Written in a lively conversational
format, "Golf’s Grand Design" takes readers behind the
scenes in the creation of many of America’s finest
courses, from the modest-budget Bully Pulpit in North
Dakota to the mega-budget Shadow Creek in Nevada. The
authors retell the discovery of the land that became the
groundbreaking Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska and
relate the extensive process required to complete the
environmentally-sensitive Liberty National in New
Jersey. They take readers behind the scenes with Jack
Nicklaus at work and at play, analyze what made Donald
Ross and A.W. Tillinghast such great architects, offer
insights into the little-known design talents of PGA
Tour Hall of Famers Tom Kite and Tom Watson and pass
along revelations regarding such famous holes as “The
Cape” and “The Redan.” They conclude with a short
discussion of the impact that technology has had on the
world of golf. "Golf’s Grand Design" is intended for all
who enjoy golf or who, by virtue of these stories, might
consider the game. It provides a fresh approach to
understanding and appreciating good golf architecture.
It will certainly be one of those books with a long
shelf life because its content is not trendy but
factual. It is the story of American golf and a living
description of the creative process of a game that
somehow worked its way into our very souls.
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