The 500 World's Greatest Golf Holes (Hardcover)

~ George Peper (Editor), Editors of Golf Magazine (Author), The Editors of GOLF Magazine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The 500 World's Greatest Golf Holes succeeds in hitting precisely the two targets any book purporting to present golf's greatest anything must aim for: it'll have golfers both arguing with and dreaming about its contents. Simultaneously.

This is an altogether magnificent volume, big in size, big in contents, visually rich, and thoroughly engaging. Peper's opening essay explains how he and his editors identified the ultimate one-tenth of 1 percent of the 500,000 or so holes on the planet, and explores the question of what exactly makes a great golf hole. Challenge and difficulty, certainly, but also beauty, fairness, reputation, history, and the way it begins to eat into a golfer's mind as he or she takes it in from the tee box. It's all in the mix. Then the fun really starts, with a comprehensive look at the best 18--the 15th at Cypress Point (but not the more terrifying 16th), the 18th at Pebble, the 16th at Merion, the 17th at St. Andrews, the 6th at Royal Melbourne, and the 13th at Augusta among them--complete with lush photography and an artist's depiction of each. The next 100 are then rolled out in somewhat less depth, with the remainder of the 500 receiving a thumbnail sketch and photo, along with either appreciation or curses from golfers everywhere.

And then a different kind of fun starts. The last section of the volume is devoted to lists: the most scenic holes, the most difficult, the most strategic, most penal, best ocean, best mountain, best American, best European, best links, best Ross, best Tillinghast, the holes that have produced historic moments. If, as a golfer, you can't dispute or defend the choices that make up these lists, it might be about time to hang up the clubs. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly

While books dedicated to the world's best golf courses abound, this sleek volume narrows the focus down to individual golf holes. Five members of the Golf Magazine staff (Peper, James A. Frank, Brian McCallen, Greg Midland and Gary Galyean) have compiled more than 800 striking photos of the golf holes to illustrate their choices, and for each hole they list course, location, architect, length and par. The first 100 holes get the fullest coverage, with two-page spreads: not surprisingly, in the U.S., warm-weather states such as California and Florida tend to dominate the picks, as do courses in New York; abroad, the British Isles stand out, but Spain offers a nice selection of top-notch holes. Heading up the list is hole number four at Banff Springs Golf Course in Alberta, Canada, with its "small, bowl-shaped green, ringed by six bunkers of varying depth and shape, which is set on an oval terrace enclosed by spruce and fir." This volume makes for a wonderful wish book for worldly, itinerant golfers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Artisan (October 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579651623
• ISBN-13: 978-1579651626
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 11.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #941,945 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great coffee table book to have!, November 11, 2000

By A Customer

This book is just a wonderful gift for any golf enthusiast. The pictures are great and any golfer or non-golfer alike will be interested in seeing and learning about many golf holes around the world. Great coffee table book!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely beautiful volume for the golf lover, December 17, 2000

By	David E. Levine (Peekskill , NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book features (of necessity somewhat subjectively) the top 500 holes in golf. The first part of the book has a several page spread on each of the top 18 holes. Of course, as is to be expected, Pebble Beach's 18th and St. Andrews' 17th are among the 18. However, there are some darkhorses that made it such as Bethpage Black's 5th hole. All the great course's have made this book such as Augusta, Cypress Point, Shinnecock Hills etc. The spread on each hole in the top 18 has several beautiful color pictures as well as accompanying text. The next group is the top 100. Each has a two page spread with a description of the hole on one page and a glossy color photograph on the facing page. Several holes are featured on each page for the top 500. Later. the book ranks the top holes by categories such as "top penal hole, top strategic hole," etc. This beautiful oversize volume is not one that you will pick up off the coffee table and peruse for a few minutes. Rather, it can provide years of pleasure as you browse through it over and over. The book has plenty of substance both quanitiatively (it is a large volume) and qualitaively. All golf lovers will enjoy this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Winter Dreams of Summer Drives and Approaches, January 17, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 93,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

This book is one of the most complete looks at top golf holes around the world that most golfers can hope to have. Since most of us cannot be scratch golfers, play on the pro tour, or get access to the world's most exclusive clubs, one of the top joys of being a golfer is playing on any great hole. The next best thing is to imagine or to remember playing such a hole. For 100 of 500 top holes, this book will help provide this indirect enjoyment by putting you visually on either the tee and the green of many outstanding holes with a decent-sized color photograph. For 18 of 500 top holes, you are able to do both.

If you live in the parts of the world where golf is not available all year around, this book can also keep the spark alive (when you are not watching the Golf Channel).

The book contains four main sections. The first looks at 18 great holes (par 72). In this section, you see the view from the tee and from the green, plus enjoy a drawing of the hole's topography and layout. An excellent essay describes the hole to flesh out the photographs.

The second section examines 100 holes (25 par 3s, 50 par 4s, and 25 par 5s). Each hole contains a one page photograph and a one page essay. I was disappointed that some of the holes did not have the best photographic angle available. I suspect that the editors relied on whatever photograph worked best in this layout, rather than the photograph that best represented the hole. I graded the book down one star for this weakness.

The third section is like a catalog, for it contains four holes per page with a tiny picture and a brief paragraph. I'm not sure what else could have been done, but perhaps it would have been better to feature fewer holes and done more with each one.

The fourth section was my favorite, because it had lots of "bests" lists. These included the most difficult, heroic, penal, longest, mountain, water, hard to putt, and scenic. I especially liked the ranking of best holes by designer, those holes that are easiest to play on for the average person, and the ones that are hardest to get on to play.

The editors have a pretty reasonable view of what they have accomplished here.

"Is our World's Greatest list definitive? We doubt it."

"Is it controversial? We hope so."

"Is it defensible? You bet it is. Have a look."

Anyone who sees the book will have quibbles. The jacket cover has the 7th hole at Pebble Beach on it. Now that is a very scenic hole (and is the signature of Pebble Beach). The hole is very tough in a high wind. But on a calm day, it is one of the easiest holes in the world. I certainly wouldn't have put it on the jacket cover. The 18th at Pebble Beach would have been a better choice if you wanted to do one hole from that course.

The process used was pretty exhaustive, but hardly definitive. For the United States, readers of Golf Magazine and its web site could make nominations. Editors of top publications around the world proposed the other holes. In the end 40 countries and territories are represented. The U.S. does seem overrepresented though. A lot of the holes are in here just because they are long. That's not so defensible these days when long hitters can conquer almost any hole in 2 shots to the green. The final choices were made at Carnoustie in 1999 during the British Open by the Golf Magazine editors, the 11 non-U.S. publication editors who had made the nominations, plus a representative each from St. Andrews and the U.S.G.A. Naturally, you have St. Andrews overrepresented in the book.

I found that the list seemed overweighted toward the well-known holes (such as the 7th at Pebble Beach and the 17th at the Old Course in St. Andrews), but that makes it more interesting to the people who want to know more about those holes. Although the book has some material about famous moments on the holes, it would have been improved by doing much more of this. When I have played any of the holes in the book, it is the stories about competitive experiences by great golfers that have enriched the pleasure for me the most.

On the other hand, Cypress Point is a course I am unlikely to ever play and the book has several holes from that club. I was very happy to see them beautifully laid out and described. I had the same reaction to many non-U.S. courses that I did not know about before.

If you have the chance to travel, I think the best use of this book is to help you organize some golf vacations where you can access the courses. I have had it in my mind to play Pinehurst #2 for many years, and seeing the great holes from that classic Donald Ross course reminded me to do something about that desire.

However you decide to enjoy this book, I am sure that it will expand your joy in the game . . . even if only as a spectator on a televised tournament.

I suggest that you make a promise to yourself to play at least one of the holes though. That will make your journey through its pages much more fun!

Have a great experience with these great holes! As the editors point out, "In the end, we don't play the great holes -- they play us." "They thrill, frighten, embolden, confound, contort, support, and cajole us."

Go for the pin!