Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course [Hardcover]

Robert Trent Jones (Author), Tom Watson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 1994

Drawing on a lifelong passion for the game, the author shares the expertise he has gained as a premier golf course architect and skilled player. In this instructional book he shows readers how to maximise their shot-making abilities by thinking their way around a course and studying it from an architect's perspective. The architect has designed his course to defend par and this book shows how they think, taking the golfer step-by-step through a variety of different course types showing how the reader can overcome the challenges. The golfer will not only learn all the tricks of the trade but, most importantly, learn to look at the game and the course in terms of logistics and attack plans. The book is filled with anecdotes and examples from specific courses that Jones has designed and/or played on and hundreds of instructive illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A time-honored adage of the sports world is that fundamentals come from the ground up, and Golf by Design literally exemplifies this statement. The author, an internationally acclaimed golf course architect, has produced a how-to work of considerable technical and artistic merit. The result is a well-written golfing masterpiece. Included are discussions of golf as analogous to chess and pool, as well as instructional line drawings that simplify the most difficult scenarios. Spectacular color photographs of 60 of the world's most challenging courses further enhance this one-of-a-kind guide that is likely to become a classic. Highly recommended for most public libraries.
Albert Spencer, Coll. of Education, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

""Most golfers look at their courses with a mixture of pleasure and nervous anticipation. GOLF BY DESIGN "will help you to see the course in a new, more confident way and will enhance your appreciation of both its natural and designed elements...Better yet, it will improve your game."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (April 4, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316472980
• ISBN-13: 978-0316472982
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for all skill levels!, February 11, 1999

By 

Andy Grosso ([e-mail]) (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course (Hardcover)

Golf By Design is a breath of fresh air compared to many other golf books that are being sold today. What better way could you learn about how to play a course than from one of the world's greatest designers?

From the different types of climates, grasses, bunkers and terrain, Jones gives excellent examples of what goes through a designer's mind while creating a course. By using some of the world's most beautiful and challenging holes, he suggests the diffeent strategies that can be applied while playing to allow golfers of all levels to lower their scores.

Whether you are a scratch golfer or a hacker, Golf By Design will definitely help you in this most challenging of games.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to play a hole taking clues from the Course Architect, February 1, 2001

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course (Hardcover)

I found this book playing a beautiful local Robt. Trent Jones, Jr. course that's in this book, The Orchards. He shows you the clues the designer has placed their to steer you to a respectable round.

From the tee box to the fairway routing and bunker construction, to the style of course, i.e. links, prairie, desert, etc., this master architect using examples of his existing designs shows the risks and rewards of different strategies.

I found that not only did this help me to play Robt. Trent Jones, Jr. courses, but other good architects layouts as well.

Well worth the investment!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for both golfers and prospective designers., July 12, 1998

By 

Peter Haas ([e-mail]) (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course (Hardcover)

This is a well-written and interesting look at the strategic/penal aspects of the golf course. Robert Trent Jones has certainly designed some of the world's best courses, and is qualified on the subject. This book is a very comprehensive discussion of what goes through a designer's mind when creating the golf course. However, it is probably most useful for the avid golfer who wishes to better understand the design of the courses that she/he plays for course management purposes. Playing golf holes with an understanding of what the designer had in mind should make anyone a better player. When studied carefully, this book can perhaps help a golfer more than most of the instructional books available today.

If you are more interested in design books which are not really meant for playing purposes, I recommend "The Anatomy of a Golf Course," by Tom Doak, as well as "Masters of the Links," edited by Geoff Shackelford.