Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course

by Robert Trent Jones Jr.

Book Overview

Drawing on a lifelong passion for the game, the author shares the expertise he has gained as a premier golf course architect and skilled player. In this instructional book he shows readers how to maximise their shot-making abilities by thinking their way around a course and studying it from an architect's perspective. The architect has designed his course to defend par and this book shows how they think, taking the golfer step-by-step through a variety...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316472980
• ISBN13: 9780316472982
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.8" x 11.2"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Understand the design of holes and courses and lower your handicap!

Robert Trent Jones Jr. is a master Golf Course Architect - as anyone who has played one of his designs can attest first hand. This book gives strong insight into his thinking - and the thinking of course designers around the planet - on the subject of constructing every part of a golf course such that the golf course offers both enjoyment and challenge to all who experience the great game. But more than that - Robert Trent Jones Jr. offers his thoughts on recognising and reading the features of a course and the intention of its designer/architect - and how features give players clues on how the designer/architect intended a particular hole should be played. This information alone will lower your golf handicap. Including details on everything from the peculiarities of different types of grasses and how best to play from each, thru the different types of sand and their characteristics; and even discussing the advantages of carrying 3 wedges rather than two - this book is another Robert Trent Jones Jr. masterpiece. It should be required reading and a part of the library of every golfer who has ever loved the worlds greatest game, or anyone who is its student.

How to play a hole taking clues from the Course Architect

I found this book playing a beautiful local Robt. Trent Jones, Jr. course that's in this book, The Orchards. He shows you the clues the designer has placed their to steer you to a respectable round.From the tee box to the fairway routing and bunker construction, to the style of course, i.e. links, prairie, desert, etc., this master architect using examples of his existing designs shows the risks and rewards of different strategies.I found that not only did this help me to play Robt. Trent Jones, Jr. courses, but other good architects layouts as well.Well worth the investment!

Good for beginners and Experts

I play many different public courses and often times have trouble reading new courses, resulting in several shots wasted until I become familiar with the course. I found Golf by Design to be really helpful in giving me the insight to read a course right off the bat and often saving me the wasted shots. It has also helped me appreciate the design and layout of the course that much more.I would also recommend it to beginners as a great introduction into 'course management'

A great book for all skill levels!

Golf By Design is a breath of fresh air compared to many other golf books that are being sold today. What better way could you learn about how to play a course than from one of the world's greatest designers?From the different types of climates, grasses, bunkers and terrain, Jones gives excellent examples of what goes through a designer's mind while creating a course. By using some of the world's most beautiful and challenging holes, he suggests the diffeent strategies that can be applied while playing to allow golfers of all levels to lower their scores.Whether you are a scratch golfer or a hacker, Golf By Design will definitely help you in this most challenging of games.

Good for both golfers and prospective designers.

This is a well-written and interesting look at the strategic/penal aspects of the golf course. Robert Trent Jones has certainly designed some of the world's best courses, and is qualified on the subject. This book is a very comprehensive discussion of what goes through a designer's mind when creating the golf course. However, it is probably most useful for the avid golfer who wishes to better understand the design of the courses that she/he plays for course management purposes. Playing golf holes with an understanding of what the designer had in mind should make anyone a better player. When studied carefully, this book can perhaps help a golfer more than most of the instructional books available today.If you are more interested in design books which are not really meant for playing purposes, I recommend "The Anatomy of a Golf Course," by Tom Doak, as well as "Masters of the Links," edited by Geoff Shackelford.