Product Description
To the Nines will introduce you to a whole new golfing experience by sharing the stories of fourteen layouts across the country. Fenwick, Katherine Hepburn's playground, dates back the 1890's. Just before a hurricane destroyed her the family home in 1938, Hepburn aced Fenwick's ninth hole and shot even par. Prairie Dunes, in Hutchinson, Kansas, began as a nine-holer, and represents some of Perry Maxwell's finest work. Rolling Rock, by Donald Ross, rivals any of his eighteen-hole creations. Long before Mike Keiser set out to turn a chunk of Oregon coast into one of the world's great golf destinations, he built The Dunes Club, easily the finest nine-hole course of the modern era.
To the Nines will send you on a mission to discover the roots of the game, and to seek out your won unique and unheralded courses.
From the Inside Flap
Pioppi proves size doesn't matter when it comes to golf courses.
Ask any golfer and you will find that many have a love of the game rooted in playing a nine-hole layout. Yet the modern golfer has been conditioned to believe that in order for a course to achieve greatness, it must be able to host a major tournament, be longer than 7,600 yards from the tips, and play to a par of 72. A waterfall is always a bonus. But greatness still comes in small packages, nine holes at a time, as evidenced in Anthony Pioppi's new book, To the Nines.
Nearly every great architect of the Golden Age has brilliant nine-holers to his credit. Prairie Dunes began its life as a magnificent nine-hole course before expanding to eighteen. Nine-holers are an integral part of golf history in the United States. Fourteen courses, from Maine to California, with historical stories and details of the courses today, are featured in the book. According to Brad Faxon "with To the Nines you will not only feel the shots, the holes, and the courses Anthony describes, but you will get caught up in their unique and intriguing stories, all the while trying to figure out how you are going to get in your next nine holes."
To the Nines chronicles courses like the long forgotten Ocean Links, perhaps the best nine-hole course ever, and Fenwick, Katherine Hepburn's playground, Whitinsville, a Donald Ross gem, and The Dunes Club, where Mike Keiser cut his teeth before creating Bandon Dunes. Pioppi also reveals the little known fact the legendary architect George Thomas, creator of Riviera, began his career with a nine-holer called Marion - and you can still play it!
This is Anthony Pioppi's first book. His research entailed hundreds of hours, many of the leading experts in the golf industry, and thousands of miles of travel. He has become one of the leading authorities on the history and architectural features of nine-hole courses across the country.
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