Customer Reviews

Grounds for Golf: The History and Fundamentals of Golf Course Design

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If you've ever wondered why some golf courses are interesting and fun to play, while others are boring and unsatisfying, you are likely to find the answers in Grounds for Golf. Shackelford brings valuable insights to the subject he calls "the most interactive art form alive." A book on golf course design could get bogged down with technicalities and engineering jargon; instead Grounds for Golf is entertaining, amusing, revealing and written for a wide golfing audience. You will have some "Aha!" moments as you realize that the best course designers, it turns out, aren't trying to punish you or trick you. They are trying to 1. Give you choices (some of which depend on how good a golfer you are or what type personality you are) and 2. Give you a way out or a way back when you make a bad shot. They're on your side, though it sometimes doesn't seem that way. If you are a golfer who gets to play many different courses (through business or vacations) you will find yourself not only beginning to notice the good and bad design aspects of a course, you will also find yourself asking, "Who designed this course?" And you will start seeking out courses designed by good architects in the same way that detective story readers seek out their favorite authors. You will become, painlessly, somewhat of a golf course design expert without having to read all the old classics on the subject. Shackelford has distilled them for you. The book is also liberally sprinkled with quotable quotes, handy for repeating in the appropriate situation. There is a fun "list" section in the back with the author's bests, favorites, etc. Also a good index. I highly recommend this book.

With this his 8th published book on Golf, Geoff Shackelford masterfully gives us a inside look on how and why golf holes are great; their strategy and construction.

Pictures, diagrams, insightful thoughts, as well as Shackelford's excellent writing set in a unique layout of 18 chapters--hence 18 holes of golf, educates the reader in not only "hands-on", (a chapter or "hole" is devoted to laying out your own golf hole) but brings him up to snuff in modern terms and methods of golf course design and construction.

I recommend this book so highly, that I have purchased 12 seperate copies for gifts throughout the year, and the next time I'm visiting in Los Angeles, I will go out of my way to play his and co-contributor to this book, Gil Hanse's Rustic Canyon Golf Club, which is presented as a chapter in the book.

Also, one of my favorite characterizations of this book is that Shackelford has a "no holds barred" attitude in letting the reader understand that many of the golf holes we play today are far and away detrimental to the art of design. It's this fresh and honest take which allows the reader to understand that there is little substance going on beyond that $125.00 green fee.

Not since Tom Doak's The Anatomy of A Golf Course has a book come along that does such a thorough job of acquainting both newcomers and serious fans with the art, science and business of golf course design. Attractively laid out and beautifully illustrated (especially the many famous hole drawings created by architect Gil Hanse), Grounds For Golf covers its subject from A-Z, profiling architecture's history and evolution, its multitude of styles, its greatest practitioners and many of their elite courses and holes.

Beyond all of this, however, it also provides rare insight by taking the reader through the design and construction of a brand-new golf course (Mr. Hanse and Mr. Shackelford's award-winning Rustic Canyon) and offers hundreds of interesting and amusing quotations, the sources of which range from Horace Hutchinson and Bernard Darwin to Dan Jenkins, Pete Dye and characters in Caddyshack. The Bobby Jones opener - "Every golfer worthy of the name should have some acquaintance with the principles of golf course design, not only for the betterment of his game, but for his own self enjoyment" - seems especially perfect for a volume which may need to explain to some novice readers why they should be interested in the subject of architecture in the first place.

For those with so critical an eye for detail, I particularly enjoy the penultimate chapter The Future (penultimate meaning "next to last", not "last") as it neatly sums up Mr. Shackelford's thoughts, which have long been on display in magazines like Golfdom, Golf, Links, Golf World and, on two whole occasions, Golf Digest.

Already heavily praised by industry insiders and reviewers, Grounds For Golf will be an architectural standard for years to come.

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

I bought his book as a gift and then picked it up and found myself reading the whole thing. The book is very accessible and entertaining even for the novice, and the beautiful drawings and great photos perfectly illustrate the author's text. It covers the history and evolution of course design, famous courses, greatest architects and the best holes ever built. Shackelford also details his own experience designing the Rustic Canyon Golf course, so this isn't a dry academic exercise: he knows what he's talking about, and says it with grace and a lot of humor. There are chapters on how to "read" a design, how to daydream your way through redesigning a hole while you're playing a course, and even a chapter that gives you a blank canvas to create your own design. I especially liked the history of St. Andrews Old Course and now understand why that course is so revered. I also liked the way Shackelford used movie and baseball analogies, which made things even clearer. The chapter on the language of architecture gave me a better understanding of golf overall. Now I actually have to try it.

Great classic book. Could read even more on the subject by this author. Dr. Kenneth Wehr

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.

After having read this book, which I thought was pretty good, I looked forward to playing Rustic Canyon.
Wrong! I thought the author "got it", but Rustic Canyon suffers from most of ills discussed in the book.
Talk about not memorable...I was really disappointed.
When the fairways are not framed by rough or trees, when the pancake traps are unseen, when the number of straight holes well out-number the doglegs, its time to go.
Good book, but if Rustic Canyon is any indication of the author's sensibilities, maybe there is better reading out there.