Back of the Card
Author: Tom Doak
Written: 1992
Length: 220 pages
Who should read this book: People that want to better understand golf course architecture, want to better articulate why they love their favorite holes/courses, enjoy excellent writing, and want to learn from a true master without the condescension of social media. Basically, everyone.
“The golf course is only a medium which makes the game more interesting; it is not supposed to be an obstacle course, eliminating the player who trips up first.”
About a year ago I was invited to play in a golf outing consisting of esteemed members of the Donald Ross Society, golf course raters, golf course architects, club pros, actual pros, and me. During dinner, I had the opportunity to sit next to an architect who has built a number of courses that you have definitely heard of. He was exceptionally nice and I likely took advantage of that as I peppered him with various golf architecture questions.
Up to that point, I assumed that my twenty or so years of golf experience qualified me to give my opinion on whether a course was good or not. Thanks to social media, I learned that was apparently not the case. Groups like The Fried Egg and other members of the Twitter Golf Course Architecture Illuminati seemed to go out of their way to make Swiss cheese of courses I liked while practically knighting courses that excited me slightly more than plain oatmeal. I brought this up to my esteemed and unfortunate dinner companion and he suggested that I ignore all that noise and read Tom Doak’s The Anatomy of a Golf Course.
I’d like to thank that architect for being incredibly cool, impossibly patient, and for recommending me my favorite golf course architecture book to-date. You sir are a gentleman, a scholar, and if this book has guided your architecture principles in any way then I am even more excited to eventually play your courses than I already was.
In the event you don’t know, Tom Doak is the architect of half the courses you want to visit on your upcoming buddies trip (Streamsong Blue, Bandon Dunes). He formerly worked with Gil Hanse (the guy that built the other half of the courses you want to visit on your upcoming buddies trip) and has become a well-respected author, sought after podcast guest, and a near legend in his own time. Doak created what I consider the best golf course rating scale, imaginatively called The Doak Scale. He wrote The Anatomy of a Golf Course at 31 years old or as I like to call it: an age where you’re old enough to know things, but still young enough to care about making a difference.
“Nothing is needed more in golf today than affordable courses on which new players might learn the game; but the assumption that such courses must be void of design interest is wrong.”
Before we get into what this book is, let’s talk about what it’s not. The Anatomy of a Golf Course is not:
- A golf course architecture textbook. It’s the SparkNotes version of a golf course architecture textbook. You won’t know enough to impress an expert, but you’ll know enough to get a B+ on a test of the high-level basics (and if my history with SparkNotes is any indication, you will also know more than most high school English teachers).
- A condescending self-tooting of the horn by Tom Doak. I mean, there’s some of that, but it’s not directed at the reader. His disdain is directed at modern architects who he feels either overly trick out a course, misuse the landscape, unnecessarily punish golfers, or produce “dullness” in an effort to be conservative. He infrequently cites his own courses as inspiration and consistently humbles himself at the feet of golf’s golden age of architects.
- A catchall for all golf course architecture terms. It has a useful glossary in the back, but I went into this book unable to identify a Redan or a Biarritz and I finished the book with the same unenviable incapability.
What you’ll get from The Anatomy of a Golf Course:
- A thorough understanding of the basics of golf course architecture
- A crash course in what it takes to build and maintain a golf course (Did you know the average course uses 300,000-750,000/day during summer months?)
- A peek into the different schools of golf architecture: punitive, heroic, and strategic (I had most of my “aha!” moments during this section)
- The ability to articulate why you liked a certain hole or course beyond “it just felt good to me” (which is also valid in many instances)
- The skills to better dissect a hole while playing to both score better and improve your appreciation of a course
- A broader knowledge than you’d ever really want of golf course drainage (though still rudimentary)
Despite his tremendous success and vast knowledge, Doak manages to write eloquently, yet clearly about the finer points of golf course architecture. It is easily consumable without feeling dumbed down. Critical without sounding condescending. Enlightening without being overwhelming. He expertly blends complex concepts with accessible language and treats his audience as intelligent, curious, and benignly uneducated. Throughout the book, Doak illustrates his points with graphics that are basic enough so as not to be overstimulating, but detailed enough that you will completely understand the concepts. My greatest takeaway from the book was that Doak doesn’t only know golf courses, he knows golfers. He knows what we like, what we hate, and doesn’t try to change it.
I finished The Anatomy of a Golf Course and thought “I want to play more Tom Doak courses. He gets it. He would know how to build a course for me.” As an architect writing a book for the lowest common denominator, I’m not sure what more Doak could want than that.
With that said, let’s get to the awards:
“The great courses entice the golfer to outwit himself.”
The Awards
The Don’t Do This Award: (Judging the book by its cover) Honestly, no real notes here. He could have made the picture of the course a bit bigger, but overall the book looks classy, educational, and simple. I like it.
The Darwin Award: (line most fit to survive) This was a tough one. There were so many to choose from, but ultimately, the winner of the Darwin Award is:
“To design courses that can be enjoyed even when you’re playing badly, and that will stand the test of time, is the art of golf architecture.”
While the best line in the book will not always be the one that is most on the nose, it felt appropriate to reward the clarity of Doak’s writing with an unvarnished quote. That said, it will likely haunt me for a bit that I didn’t choose the runner up:
“The great courses stand apart because of their differences from the rest, not because they adhere to some definition of ‘greatness’ more than the others.”
The Throwing Darts Award: (How many Book Darts did I use to mark favorite passages?) 137 Book Darts on a 220 page book seems less than impressive. It means that a little more than once every other page something interesting was said. However, a good portion of those pages were Doak’s illustrations which I did not mark. Let me assure you, each page of this book contains multitudes of engaging writing and information.
The Planet Ice Award: (Was there a better title for this book?) I think this title is a 10/10. It sounds like you’re about to get a thorough understanding of golf courses, how they are built, laid out, best attacked, and what makes them tick. Most importantly, the book delivers all those things and more. (5.8)
