My Summer Reading List

Many decades past my school years, I still feel the need to report on “what I read this summer.” I read as many golf architecture books as I can, and as more and more golf architecture books are showing up, and I am – or will be – enjoying them all.

First up on my summer reading list was the new release by Mark Leslie, called “The Design’s the Thing!” This book is similar to “Secrets of the Golf Course Architects” but with sharper editing. While golf architects have great stories, they are often poor storytellers. Leslie uses his editing background (including a stint at this magazine’s forerunner) to take stories from the road, philosophical quotes and humorous statements from my brethren, and edit them down to just the good stuff. It’s a fun read.

He adds a few chapters from his other writings, covering subjects that have always rankled at least my feathers – such as potty parity laws. I mean, if women need more toilets because of small bladders, what about old men with large prostates?

Another new read is Bradley S. Klein’s “Wide Open Fairways: A Journey across the Landscapes of Modern Golf.” I have always admired Brad’s writing, with its unique style, derived from the many subjects he’s covered.

Brad is almost an accidental golf writer and he brings a more professorial tone to the proceedings. Case in point: His first chapter is called “A Sense of Place” – my very first lesson in landscape design school 40 years ago. This also mirrors one of my favorite college landscape architecture texts, “Reading the Landscape of America” (by May T. Watts, 1957), which explains the various landscapes of America (such as bogs, sand dunes and forests) to laypeople. Klein takes a similar approach, discussing golfing landscapes, their meaning, and how we react to them as humans.

It’s deep, but not too deep. He touches on the development of courses from New York (contrasting Donald Trump to Depression-era Bethpage), to Los Alamos, N.M., to the sand hills of Nebraskas. They are all woven into interesting stories and all will make you think about golf’s place in the universe.

Leslie and Klein give us two different looks into golf courses – Leslie the quick read and Klein’s a deeper look. Both are worthy of your time.

In perusing Amazon, I also noticed a few other books that I’ve purchased and now await arrival. I can review one – “Methods of Early Golf Architecture: The Selected Writings of Alister MacKenzie, H.S. Colt, and A.W. Tillinghast (Vol. 1)” – because I have well-worn copies of the books these selected writings came from. I learn much from reading “the old dead guys,” and I am always struck by how similar the thought process has been over time, even if the products came out differently.

For those who missed out on the reprints of these classic architecture books offered a decade ago, or simply want a smaller cross section of Golden Age architecture thoughts, this book will fit nicely in many golfers libraries.

Three recently released books, in one way or another, speak to the relationship between sand and golf courses.

“The Golden Age of Pinehurst: The Story of the Rebirth of No. 2” by veteran writer Lee Pace, covers the changes made last year by Coore and Crenshaw, and also has some background history of the resort set in the pine hills of North Carolina.

“Golf in the Nebraska Sand Hills: The Next Mecca for Golf” by Dean Kratz was released late last year and is a mix of photos and a general overview of golf in the sand hills of Nebraska, not touching on much of anything in great depth. However, for those as interested in this region, it has value.

“Sand and Golf: How Terrain Shapes the Game” by George Waters will be released later this year, and it promises to explore what the relationship between golf course architecture and sandy terrain, which has existed since the inception of golf on the naturally occurring areas of short grass found among the coastal dunes of Scotland. For real students of golf architecture, this should be a great read.

While I try hard to be your single source of golf architectural knowledge, I encourage you to branch out and see what many others have to say on the subject.

Jeffrey D. Brauer is a veteran golf course architect responsible for more than 50 new courses and more than 100 renovations.  A member and past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, he is president of Jeffrey D. Brauer/GolfScapes in Arlington, Texas. Reach him at jeff@jeffreydbrauer.com.