The Spirit of St. Andrews (Hardcover)

~ Alister MacKenzie (Author), Robert Tyre Jones Jr. (Foreword) "Golf, in its early days, was always played on commons or links land which bordered the sea..." (more)
Key Phrases: golfing grasses, real links land, excellent holes, Cypress Point, Bobby Jones, Bob Jones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1933 Alister MacKenzie put on paper his considerable golfing knowledge. One of the game's most revered course designers--he conceived Augusta National, site of the Masters, and served the hallowed links of St. Andrews for years as consulting architect--MacKenzie synthesized his thoughts on golf's history, its equipment, its personalities, and his musings on what makes a great course and what makes a great hole, into a manuscript that lay hidden for more than 60 years. Finally available, it stands as one of the most courtly and cultivated treatises ever written on the royal and ancient game. His concepts of the psychology of design are as apt today as when he penned them, and his anecdotal spinnings on his own golfing trials should inspire anyone who's thought of picking up a club.

Product Description

There’s no question that Dr. Alister MacKenzie was one of the best golf course architects in the history of the game. Augusta National, Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point—among many other famous layouts—are proof of that fact.

In the mid-1990s, MacKenzie’s lost golf manuscript, written a year before his death in 1933, was found and finally published as The Spirit of St. Andrews.

Even all these years later, MacKenzie’s thoughts on such topics as the golf swing, rules, great courses and holes, and golfers are interesting and intuitive.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886947007
• ISBN-13: 978-1886947009
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #846,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it and read it now, September 30, 1998

By A Customer

Great read and great sketches. When asked how he got such interesting, hilly, contoured greens, Dr. M once said, "Employ the biggest fool in the village and instruct him to make the greens all flat"

Scary how much of the comments written in the early part of the century apply to today's game and course design. Once section about the controversy of the day re: limiting the flight of the ball is exaclt what we are hearing nearly again 70 years later

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Substantial resource on golf in the 1930s, November 12, 2004

By	T. Enst - See all my reviews

Not to be confused with a book centered on architecture, this, MacKenzie's unpublished and possibly unfinished volume on golf, is a general essay on the game and its facets.

Because MacKenzie is famous for his courses, the obvious assumption is that this would be centered on course design. Rather, it is almost a reflection on what goes in to making a good course versus a bad one, what seperates good golfers from the hacks, and a whole other range of subjects. It even features a chapter on his disection of the golf swing.

For someone looking purely for an architectural perspective, it would be better to look at his other book, Golf Architecture. This, on the other hand, is much more broad ranging. Most will only be interested in the first half, where the focus is on courses, their upkeep, and MacKenzie's personal involvement in the spread of golf. The latter, on the swing and a few random ideas on golf, will likely drag on the reader rather than offering the enlightenment we would hope for.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Course Architecture and Maintenance, July 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit of St. Andrews (Paperback)

MacKenzie shares his timeless, and oft forgotten, philosophy on how a course should be designed - for the golfer, but not by the golfer; shaped and, when necessary reworked, by the professional architect, not by the whims of a committee; and finally, playable by all who love the game.