Grounds for Golf: The History and Fundamentals of Golf Course Design
Shackelford is a golf journalist and traditionalist worried that equipment and television are degrading golf into a sport played by thrashers rather than thinkers. In this enjoyable effort to spread appreciation for golf-course architecture, Shackelford preaches a simple dogma: a course should be naturalistic, replete with tempting, playable shot options. Knowing that golf aficionados can sense the difference between playing an assembly-line course built during the 1970s and a mature one from the 1920s, Shackelford puts flesh on the bones of their intuition with a review of design schools. He extols the "strategic" school, exemplified by St. Andrews or Augusta National, which he justifies with detailed assessments of the famous Road Hole and Amen Corner, respectively. Caustic about designs he disdains, Shackelford is more than an armchair critic because he helped create a new public course in Southern California, illustrated, as are his other topics, with a profusion of sketches and photographs. An insightful instilling of knowledge, Shackelford's history and analysis will score low with the cerebral segment of golfdom--and, remember, low is good.Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved