Golf By Design

Author: Robert Trent Jones
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Category: Book

This item is no longer available

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

10 reviews

Media: Paperback
Pages: 288

ISBN: 0316005851
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780316005852
ASIN: 0316005851

Publication Date: August 4, 2005

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course
•	Paperback - Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
For the first time in paperback--the book in which Americas preeminent designer of golf courses reveals his secrets to playing better, smarter golf. Copiously illustrated throughout with full-color photographs, instructional drawings, and diagrams, GOLF BY DESIGN teaches golfers how to analyze each hole from a designers perspective--how to beat the course by outwitting its architect.

From tee to green, from fairway to rough, Jones leads golfers through every step of a course designers strategy, detailing how architects use optical illusions, elevation changes, forced carries, trees, sand, and even different types of grass to challenge a golfers playing skills. He then presents expert strategies for counterattack--from constructing the ideal approach shot to taking advantage of the wind and playing across water.

GOLF BY DESIGN provides novice golfers with invaluable insights into all of the basic, crucial elements of strategy and technique. At the same time, the book offers seasoned players the inside knowledge they need for lowering their handicap and permanently improving their game.

Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Understand the design of holes and courses and lower your handicap! June 28, 2007
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.

3 out of 5 stars

Its greatest strength is its greatest weakness December 22, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

For whatever reason, there are only a handful of books available that address the problems of golf strategy specifically. Many of those turn out to be little more than lessons on how to hit a draw or fade, or to play out of rough. Only a few actually deal with the problem of hole designs and everything that comes with them.

In this light, Golf by Design is a raging success. It offers a look into the thinking of the architect and sheds light on a great many areas of play that usually get swept under the carpet in favor of learning to hit 300 yard drives. What do different bunker placements and shapes do to define a course? What effect can grass types have on how a shot rolls? Where should a person be looking to find the best angle to attack a fairway or green?

Since the time of this work's publishing, several similar volumes have come out, not the least those dealing specifically with architecture itself. Others, including Butch Harmon's Playing Lessons, mix in swing tips with strategies for golfers of differing calibers. It is possible, though, that a good overall book on golf, such as Golf Magazine's Complete Book of Golf Instruction, will include a great deal of information located here.

Three things you will not find in other volumes, however, are details on the visual illusions used by an architect, the diagrams, illustrations, and photos found in this volume that do the best job of demonstrating a point of any book around, and lastly an insight into the RT Jones philosophy of course design. This last point may be of particular importance to a number of golfers, as their favorite courses may be a RTJ work.

In the end, however, the fact that a working architect with his own interests at heart is the author keeps the book from having the impact that it could. Several jabs are taken at other architects here and there, some probably deservingly, but still making for an ugly display. The fact that the author is a skilled golfer himself comes out in one passage too many, where we see a guiding hand from the enlightened being offered to the poor initiate. However, Although many of the examples given do come from RTJ courses, this is nothing to fault the author for. Readily available material is the boon of any writer.

If you have not read anything on golf architecture, and want to get an idea of what it is all about and how it affects your game, Golf by Design might be the right place to start. Anyone with some education in course design might be best served by saving up for a trip to a famous layout, as the hands-on experience will probably be more worthwhile.

4 out of 5 stars

Good Insights From A Leading Course Designer February 23, 2003
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

RTJ II's Golf By Design provides a number of insights into the mind of the designer and how they view the elements that go into the design of a golf hole. I found the book to be more descriptive of how designers think and less prescriptive about what the player should do in terms of dealing with the various design elements (Butch Harmon's Playing Lessons is a much more strategic approach to playing individual holes). Many of the leading architects of this day and age have written similar books (Trent Jones Sr., Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio ....) - consider this book RTJ II's contribution to this genre .....

5 out of 5 stars

How to play a hole taking clues from the Course Architect February 2, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

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!

4 out of 5 stars Good for beginners and Experts June 12, 2000
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

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'