Driving the Green: The Making of a Golf Course

I've reread and will continue as well as give copies away to those I know are into the game as I.


Long, slow process - longer, slower book   August 10, 2000
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

This was a big disappointment. I know people who have played the course, and thought that it was excellent. I was looking forward to the nitty gritty of course design. Instead we get all of the tedium of getting the permits, the arguements, life stories of some of the participants, and most of them were not particularly interesting. No pictures, only a few lame drawings. Where are the before and after pictures so we can see the transformation of wild land to the course? How about focusing on some design elements, maybe pick a green and show how it was made, and the thoughts on the bunkering, fine-tuning the finished product? Nothing like that was in this book. In fact, the book ends before the first shot is hit. No reactions from players to the new course. No follow up with the designer on how it turned out. No reviews by outside golfers. The book just stops when it is finally getting interesting. It took forever to build this course. It seemed to take longer to get through this book.


The people involved and the process itself are pictured very   September 2, 1999
The people setting out to realise a dream and their encouters with the outside world and reality are pictured very nice and vivid. The proces is given with warm observations. One comment for those who publish the book: please enclose a 1-page overview of the site and lay-out because then moving 200.000 (square)yards of dirt (soil) from lake 7 to green 12th realy has a meaning. Now, with the details given it was just impossible to understand the weight of this kind of information. Even still: a very fine read for all in golf and courses.


Documents the ills of modern golf course architecture. Wow!   February 26, 1999
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

CAUTION!!! The only book of its kind. John Strawn reports it as he sees and hears it. It's the perfect illustration of what is wrong with modern golf course architecture. If you're looking to hire an architect for remodelling, reconstruction, redesign or a new project... read this first. Then read Masters of the Links.


Insight into modern golf course construction   December 3, 1997
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book left me wondering! The access the author had to the developers, construction crew, and architects of the 'Ironhorse Resort' was complete. This is the book's major strength. Throughout I read a muted implicit criticism of almost all his sources. However the line of outright criticism is never crossed. The author becomes so close (he's an avid golfer and golfs with everybody) you wonder where he stands ultimately on issues he brushes against. For example, we get to know ruthless developers throwing their weight and money around as they make their deals. Environmental advocates and their concerns are introduced, then dropped. We see brief references to the Haitian migrant workers, and other hard working laborers, who toil on the irrigation systems of this luxurious playground for the rich. None of this is followed through, leaving the question open whether the author along the way abandoned the writing of a social commentary, or was just the consumate sycophant all along. This criticism aside, as a avid golfer I enjoyed the book. It might not appeal to the non-golfer. It is well written, and the anecdotes and asides into golf history that the reviewer below complains about I found fascinating. This book about the making of a modern golf course (notwithstanding the lost opportunities to educate on and explore in greater detail larger issues pertaining to the hitting a little white ball in a manufactured paradise that's replaced a natural one) is a one-of-a-kind.