Courses

Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die: Golf Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations

There's an incredible similarity between the mechanics of a fly cast and the swing of a golf club. Perhaps that's why Chris Santella, author of Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die, can be found on the links when he's not on the stream. With Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die, Santella gives voice to his other sporting passion, interviewing 50 people intimately connected to the sport about some of their favorite courses around the world.

For both passionate golfers and armchair travelers, this gorgeous full-color book presents the world's greatest golf venues, the personal favorites of renowned players, course architects, and other experts in the sport. From Ballyliffin, Ireland's northernmost course, whose rumpled fairways wander along the North Sea in the shadows of Glashedy Rock, to New Zealand's Cape Kidnappers, perched atop dramatic cliffs some 500 feet above the ocean, the book's beautiful photographs capture the architecture, noteworthy holes, location, and ambiance that make these courses standouts for ardent golfers. A brief history of each course, an experiential account-filled with local color-from the person recommending the venue, and trip-planning advice provide adventurous readers with all the information they need to chip and putt their way around the globe.

A close-up look at golf's top courses around the world, recommended by such experts as Nick Faldo and Christie Kerr (pro golfers), Pete Dye and Tom Doak (course architects), Brian McCallen (editor and author), and Donald Trump
With breathtaking color photographs of each site, this is a great gift for avid golfers and armchair travelers alike

Dream Golf: The Making of Bandon Dunes

This is the story of a man with a dream—as well as the vision and passion to make it come true. The dream was to build a great American links course, one that would contain all the excitement of the famous golfing destinations in Scotland and Ireland, storied places like St. Andrews and Ballybunion. The man was Mike Keiser, an entrepreneur and amateur golf enthusiast, founder of the successful company Recycled Paper Greetings, and Dream Golf is the story of how, with the help of some of the most colorful—and occasionally controversial—men in golf, he transformed a remote area on Oregon's Pacific coast into not one, but three of the most stunning, challenging, and highly ranked courses in the world.
It began modestly, when Mike Keiser decided to build a nine-hole "dunes" course and golf club on the shore of Lake Michigan, near his home in Chicago. The experience prompted him to look further, with the goal of realizing a dream that he had harbored for some time: to bring to American golfers the same kind of experience he had enjoyed while playing some of the legendary courses of the British Isles, "links" courses that had evolved naturally to fit the rugged, heaving coastal terrain. These ancient courses were the antithesis of most modern American courses, where the features were shaped by bulldozers and all too often look sleek, manicured, and artificial.
No, Bandon Dunes would be a "pure" golf experience, pitting the golfer against the elements, allowing the land to dictate the course, banning the use of carts, making the golfer feel at one with both nature and the game. To achieve that goal would take a great amount of planning and hard work, the struggle of man against nature in shaping the land into three courses that would become the Bandon Dunes complex. Conventional wisdom said it was impossible. And even if he built it, would anyone come to this remote Oregon outpost?
Dream Golf is the first complete account of how drive and determination, coupled with the best minds in the game, created a utopian golf experience in a place of breathtaking natural beauty. It is the gripping and compelling account of how one man followed his dream to its greatest conclusion.

Mike Keiser, entrepreneur, amateur golf enthusiast, and founder of the successful company Recycled Paper Greetings, turned his unlikely dream of creating a British-style links course on Oregon’s rugged coast into one of America’s most extraordinary golf destinations. Working against the odds, and making decisions that seemed counterintuitive to most outsiders, Keiser surprised the skeptics and charmed the critics with the result of his efforts. When it opened in 1999, Bandon Dunes was instantly acclaimed one of the best courses in the world.

This book, written with Keiser’s full cooperation, is the first all-inclusive account of how he translated his passion into a reality. It reveals the difficulties he had to overcome, the personalities he encountered—most notably two of golf architecture’s most controversial figures, Scotsman David Kidd and American Tom Doak—and the goal he has achieved in creating a true golfing utopia in an astonishingly short period of time on a wild, windblown bluff high above the Pacific.

Where Golf is Great: The Finest Courses of Scotland and Ireland

Every golfer who’s worth his favorite putter knows where golf is great: Scotland, birthplace of the game and still its most important shrine, from the splendor of St. Andrews to the regal resort at Gleneagles; and Ireland, where the links like Ballybunion and Royal County Down are of unsurpassed beauty and challenge. Whether golfers actually make the pilgrimage or arm-chair it, Where Golf Is Great is indispensable: the most luxurious, entertaining, informative, and exhaustive book on these most important destinations. Written by the bard of Scottish and Irish golf, it combines the most authoritative information with the most beautiful prose and the most stunning color photographs—an unsurpassed celebration of the places where golf is, indeed, great.

Not only is the golf great, but so are the sights, the dining, the lodging—and it’s all here: the pub lunches and three-star dinners; the country-house hotels and full-service resorts. Jim Finegan’s singularly insightful advice includes the very best play-and-stay combinations for once-in-a-lifetime perfect golf days, in this once-in-a-lifetime perfect golf book.

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

Planet Golf: The Definitive Reference to Great Golf Courses Outside the United States of America

A breathtaking tour around more than 130 of the worldÂ’s finest golf courses, this exciting book focuses on courses outside the United States. Many fabulous courses will be new to the American reader, and are featured in magnificent photographs made especially for this book. Generously oversized, Planet Golf is a treasure trove of new information and great ideas for the golfing traveler. Comments on the courses by leading designers such as Greg Norman, Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Doak, Gary Player, Tom Weiskopf, and others accompany the authoritative text by Darius Oliver.

Featuring courses in more than twenty countries, from the famous links of Scotland and Ireland to the leading Heathland and Sandbelt classics of England and Australia, and from the hidden gems of France, New Zealand, and Japan to the best within the rest of Europe, Africa, North and Central America, Australia, and Asia, Planet Golf is the definitive reference to the greatest golf courses available outside the United States.

Two Years in St. Andrews: At Home on the 18th Hole

Golf Courses of the World: 365 Days

An invitation to the ultimate golfing journey, this new addition to Abrams' highly successful 365 Days series takes the reader around the globe to visit 365 of the most sensational courses ever created. Stunning photographs by the world's leading golf photographers capture the spectacular scenery and signature views of each course, while informative texts discuss their history, natural setting, design, notable holes, and native vegetation. The vast array of distinctive layouts shows golf's enduring ability to adapt to every type of terrain or ecosystem, and Golf Courses of the World: 365 Days covers them all.

The book includes renowned courses in golf strongholds such as Pebble Beach in the U.S., Royal Melbourne in Australia, and St. Andrews in Scotland, as well as hidden gems in exotic locales like Indonesia, Nepal, Dubai, Kenya, and Brazil. For everyone from armchair golfers to serious players who want to add a little variety to their game, this sumptuous volume is the ultimate golfing companion and dreambook. AUTHOR BIO: Robert Sidorsky has written about golf for The New York Times since 1993 and is a regular contributor to Links magazine and other publications. He is an attorney who lives in New York City.

Extreme Golf: The World's Most Unusual, Fantastic and Bizarre Courses

Extreme Golf is a captivating journey through the world’s most geographically extreme, climatically challenging, dangerous and uniquely designed courses.

From the sweltering courses of the desert to the freezing ice golf championships in Greenland, and from the erotically shaped bunkers in lush surroundings in France to the harsh surfaces in Kabul, golf is clearly no longer the elite sport it once was. Today’s golfers (at least the ones not wearing plaid pants) are looking for the extreme-where the rough is patrolled by wild animals and the greens are sometimes white.

This lushly illustrated book features more than 200 breathtaking and often hilarious photographs capturing the true spirit of extreme golf, accompanied by light-hearted and engaging text. Including an appendix listing the unusual courses around the world (in case you’d like to make a tee time), Extreme Golf’s chapters include:

• Location, Location, Location (out of the way places in the world)
• Courses for Concern (difficult due to geographic oddities)
• Golf by Design (in which the course designer influences the extreme setup)
• In the Rough (really hard courses in really strange places)

Discovering Donald Ross: The Architect and his Golf Courses

Discovering the life and work of a true artist: Donald Ross

I grew up playing a Donald Ross golf course, Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, so my standards of what a good golf course should be were based on a Ross design. I think being exposed early to a Donald Ross course provided me balance, as both a player and future golf course designer, because of the variety of shots found throughout each of his design. Ross was without a doubt a great influence on my design career, and he remains a personal favorite. I am happy to see Brad Klein devote a book to the work of Donald Ross. Brad is passionate about golf course design and that translates in his writing.
—Jack Nicklaus

Golf in Scotland: A Travel-Planning Guide with Profiles of 68 Great Courses

Golf in Scotland is designed to help travelers save money and plan their own golf-centered trips to Scotland, the "Home of Golf." Seven chapters offer advice on when to go, where to go, lodging, tee times, and other travel decisions. St. Andrews receives attention in its own chapter. Extensive descriptions of sixty-eight courses feature complete contact information. Appendices include over 170 websites, a bibliography, and a golf-readiness checklist. Indexed.