The Art of Golf Design
Geoff Shackelford returns to the coffee table golf book market with this fine collection of essays, intriguing sidebars, and beautiful artwork. Shackelford specializes in writing about golf course architecture, a subject near and dear to some of us. His work also has the benefit of being well written.
The essays argue for the continuation of time-honored principles to produce three fundamental elements to golf course design: naturalness, variety, and strategy.
Shackelford is not the type of critic who contends that nothing good was ever done since the 1920’s. He’s pleased to note and describe the contributions of brilliant new courses such as Sand Hills in Nebraska, the handiwork of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.
He also knows how the limits of golf course finance can affect good design, but argues convincingly that paying attention to artistry will yield appropriate dividends.
Spread among Shackelford’s 10 essays and 14 small sidebar pieces by writers such as Bernard Darwin, Robert Hunter, and Daniel Wexler, are over 50 fine art renderings by Illustrator Michael Miller.
Miller, the former Director of Golf at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, also collaborated with Shackelford on The Golden Age of Golf Design.
He also did the cover painting for Shackelford’s Masters of the Links.
Review Date: December 15, 2001