Golf Course Designs
Depending on your handicap, the name Tom Fazio either strikes fear in  your heart or sets your blood rising to the challenge. One of the most  celebrated course designers of the past three decades, Fazio has left his  imprint on such showcase tracks as Kiawah Island Club, Grayhawk, Butler  National, Barton Creek, Hartefeld National, and the TPC at Myrtle Beach. His  beautifully illustratedGolf Course Designsopens a window onto the  thinking that went into those and other courses--and understanding a designer's  intentions is as powerful a weapon as any club in the bag.Using his own designs as his laboratory, Fazio, through text and pictures,  unveils the mystery of his methods and the ways in which technology has affected  changes in golf course architecture through the 20th century. As difficult as  Fazio's courses can play, he emphasizes that his intention isn't to punish  golfers--though he has no problem with punishing bad shots--but to inspire  golfers by providing a fair test of skill, whatever a player's skill level, in  the most dramatic setting possible. To that end, he explains how he routes a  course, where and why he sets bunkers and hazards, how he frames a hole for  aesthetic appeal, how he sets greens and tees, when he leaves the landscape as  he finds it, and why he brings in bulldozers to move what nature didn't provide  to his liking."The classic tension in golf course design as I see it," he writes, "is not  between risk and reward, but between playability and difficulty.... Even if a  client wanted to build the toughest course around, I would argue that it should  be fair." A golfer who can learn to use each hole's inherent fairness to  advantage is a golfer who can post better scores. And, in the end, that's the  most important secret Fazio's attractive volume reveals.--Jeff Silverman