PerryGolf -- The Advisor Travel Newsletter


JUNE/JULY 2003		VOLUME 03 NUMBER 02

ADVISOR RECOMMENDED READING

The Advisor has picked out a few new classics that will be perfect additions to any golf enthusiast's library and make great summer reading or perfect Father's Day gifts.

Finally! The long wait is over for the final edition in James W. Finegan's brilliant trilogy of Golfing Pilgrimages to the British Isles. All Courses Great and Small - A Golfer's Pilgrimage to England and Wales (Simon and Schuster, $21.00, www.simonsays.com) is his love letter to the people, places and without saying, the courses that define the soul of golf in England and Wales. If you have never read his previous two volumes, published in 1996 - Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens, A Golfer's Pilgrimage to Scotland and Emerald Fairways and Foam-Flecked Seas, A Golfer's Pilgrimage to Ireland, you have missed some of the best golf travel writing since Bernard Darwin and Herbert Warren Wind. You don't just imagine the places he describes that you may not have visited, you feel them. And for the places you have been, he brings your own memories back, due to his charming accurate descriptions, with a clarity rarely experienced in any travel volume golf or otherwise. Spend just one evening with one of Finegan's books and it will inspire you to, like him, make many pilgrimages to the British Isles, not only to visit the 'name' courses but to take the time to play its hidden gems as well.

Desert Willow For anyone that has ever dreamed of what it might be like to design a golf course from inception to completion, Selected Golf Courses by Hurdzan-Fry, Photos and Essays Vol. 1 ($75.00 through Hurdzan/Fry Golf Course Design - 614-457-9955, www.hurdzanfry.com) gives an intimate look into the thought process of both the designers and the clients. Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry are one of the hottest designing duos in the game today, and their new book gives a fascinating glimpse into the challenges involved in creating the masterpieces we love to play. From Prince Edward Island in the Northeast of Canada, down through the Eastern seaboard of the United States to Miami, crisscrossing the country across the MountView, CA Plains, back over the border into Canada outside Montreal and Toronto, stopping in the Colorado Rockies and Vancouver, British Columbia, and to the California desert, their designs stretch the imagination and beautifully integrate into the natural environments and terrain they encompass. Designs include Naples National, Hamilton Farms, Devil's Paintbrush, Devil's Pulpit, Le Diable, and the Militia Hill Course at the famed Philadelphia Cricket Club to name a few. Hurdzan/Fry teamed with the talented brother-sister photographic team of John and Jeannine Henebry to bring their designs to life in this beautiful coffee table book. The book is a labor of love, you'll love browsing through again and again. The Advisor can't wait for Photos and Essays Vol. 2!

Emerald Gems I know The Advisor previewed Larry's book in the last edition, but since receiving our copy we can't stop flipping the pages and felt it desired another mention. This is the ultimate golf coffee table book for anyone that dreams of the emerald-lined fairways of Ireland. For the past decade Larry Lambrecht has been expertly photographing the magnificent links venues of Ireland's dramatic coastline. Many of his outstanding photos grace the Advisor, PerryGolf's website and brochures. He has produced a volume of photography representing this golf odyssey in a 210-page coffee table book, Emerald Gems - The Links of Ireland ($95.00), covering ALL the links and a few of the seaside courses. The book measures 12' x 16' in a landscape format, and contains over 150 images, with prose written by some of golf's most acclaimed journalists from Ireland - including Dermot Gilleece, Pat Ruddy, Ivan Morris, Patricia Davies, and David Feherty. Books may be ordered through the website www.irishgolfphotos.com or 1-888-LOWDRAW.

The Wit and Wisdom of Bobby Jones Sidney L. Matthew, a trial lawyer by trade, has emerged as the world's leading historian on one of golf's most endearing legends, Bobby Jones, having been involved with nine previous books and countless articles on the man. While many know Bobby Jones for his unmatched record on the golf course, including the historic 'Grand Slam' in 1930 of the U.S. Open, British Amateur, U.S. Amateur and The Open Championship, those that knew him personally admired Mr. Jones as much for his humor, intellect and grace off the course, as they did for his mastery of the game. It is this side of Jones that Matthew brilliantly brings to life off the pages of his books. In The Wit & Wisdom of Bobby Jones (Clocktower Press, $14.95, www.clocktowerpress.com), Matthew has compiled some of Jones' classic comments on golf & life & how they relate to each other. A thin volume, you'll find that number of pages does not relate to the about of pertinent information contained within. You'll also find that Jones was ahead of his time in some of his comments on the 'modern' game and things haven't changed much in the past decades. Some quotes & wisdom from the book:

His humor in golf truisms:

'No putt is short enough to be despised'

'Some emotions cannot be endured with a golf club in your hands. Doesn't it show us all that we are silly little boys or fatuous asses to think that we can play golf without making a lot of bad shots.'

'You never know who your friends are until you lose'

With all the talk about advanced equipment & today's technology- here's
Jones' comment on low scoring at the Masters:

'There is something wrong with a golf course which will not yield a score in the 60s to a player who has played well enough to deserve it... We are willing to have low scores made during the tournament and it is not our intention to rig the golf course so as to make it tricky.'

His simple advice for a great round, is perhaps the hardest advice to execute:

'A lot of the things you do wrong on a golf course, you do wrong because you're thinking too much about your swing. When you get on a golf course, you shouldn't think of anything but what happens from here to there. Just say, 'Here's the ball, and I want to knock it over there, and then go ahead and knock it over there.'

And on his love for St. Andrews:

'Of all the courses I've played tournaments on, if I had to be sentenced to play only one course the rest of my life, I would pick St. Andrews in Scotland, because it changes so much, and there's nothing about it that's obvious.'

'I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St. Andrews and I'd still have a rich and full life.'

Golf's Greatest Eighteen David Mackintosh has edited and compiled 18 wonderful essays from 18 of the world's top golf journalists on 18 of the game's greatest players of the modern era in the aptly named Golf's Greatest Eighteen - Today's Top Golf writers debate and rank the Sport's Greatest Champions (Contemporary Books- A division of McGraw-Hill, $24.95). Along with personal insights into the players selected, there is a fascinating conversion table that translates the money earned by a player into todays 'New Money', what's that mean? Well in 'New Money' Byron Nelson's historic year 1945 in which he won an unprecedented 17 tournaments would have translated into earning over $15,357,953, far surpassing any current player's annual money earnings. It really helps put in perspective the amazing skill of our past champions and legends of the game and that today's players, even with technology, have a ways to go, to sit along with our past heroes in golf's history. And its not all about the money, of course Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., the games's finest amateur is listed right there among the professionals. The List & Writers - Tom Watson by John Garrity, Byron Nelson by Dave Hackenberg, Sam Snead by Jim Dodson, Gary Player by Ben Wright, Billy Casper by Al Barkow, Nick Faldo by John Hopkins, Walter Hagen by Dr. Stephen R. Lowe, Raymond Floyd by Ron Green, Sr., Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. by Sidney L. Matthew, Severiano Ballesteros by John Huggan, Hale Irwin by Dan Reardon, Arnold Palmer by Mike Purkey, Greg Norman by Phil Tresidder, Ben Hogan by Jaime Diaz, Jack Nicklaus by Kaye Kessler, Lee Trevino by Marino Parascenzo, Gene Sarazen by Furman Bisher, and Tiger Woods by Tom Auclair.