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

by Robert Trent Jones (Author), Tom Watson (Contributor) "Golf has a playing field like no other in the world..." (more)
Key Phrases: clubhead resistance, bunkering pattern, first landing area, Pebble Beach, Old Course, Spanish Bay (more...)

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: 11.2 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #569,883 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Its greatest strength is its greatest weakness, December 22, 2004

By	T. Enst - See all my reviews

For whatever reason, there are only a handful of books available that address the problems of golf strategy specifically. Many of those turn out to be little more than lessons on how to hit a draw or fade, or to play out of rough. Only a few actually deal with the problem of hole designs and everything that comes with them.

In this light, Golf by Design is a raging success. It offers a look into the thinking of the architect and sheds light on a great many areas of play that usually get swept under the carpet in favor of learning to hit 300 yard drives. What do different bunker placements and shapes do to define a course? What effect can grass types have on how a shot rolls? Where should a person be looking to find the best angle to attack a fairway or green?

Since the time of this work's publishing, several similar volumes have come out, not the least those dealing specifically with architecture itself. Others, including Butch Harmon's Playing Lessons, mix in swing tips with strategies for golfers of differing calibers. It is possible, though, that a good overall book on golf, such as Golf Magazine's Complete Book of Golf Instruction, will include a great deal of information located here.

Three things you will not find in other volumes, however, are details on the visual illusions used by an architect, the diagrams, illustrations, and photos found in this volume that do the best job of demonstrating a point of any book around, and lastly an insight into the RT Jones philosophy of course design. This last point may be of particular importance to a number of golfers, as their favorite courses may be a RTJ work.

In the end, however, the fact that a working architect with his own interests at heart is the author keeps the book from having the impact that it could. Several jabs are taken at other architects here and there, some probably deservingly, but still making for an ugly display. The fact that the author is a skilled golfer himself comes out in one passage too many, where we see a guiding hand from the enlightened being offered to the poor initiate. However, Although many of the examples given do come from RTJ courses, this is nothing to fault the author for. Readily available material is the boon of any writer.

If you have not read anything on golf architecture, and want to get an idea of what it is all about and how it affects your game, Golf by Design might be the right place to start. Anyone with some education in course design might be best served by saving up for a trip to a famous layout, as the hands-on experience will probably be more worthwhile.

6 of 6 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

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 (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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!