Putting a Little Spin on It: The Design's the Thing!

In the world of golf, course architects are the true lifeblood — the artists who mold 150 acres into the playing fields for millions of sportsmen and women —

But where would they be without the course superintendents — men and women who groom these playing fields?

In this Volume 1, author Mark Leslie gleans the best from 25 years of interviews with the cream of the architects crop: people with the class of Arnold Palmer and Gene Sarazen ... the wit of the late Patty Berg, Jeff Brauer and John LaFoy ... the downright “good guyness” of Ben Crenshaw and Keith Foster ... the creative genius of Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus and, well, scores of their colleagues.

For instance:
• “Pete’s saddest day is the day he has to grass the golf hole.” — Bobby Weed
• Take Cypress Point off that property and put it somewhere else, it’s just another golf course.” — Jack Nicklaus
• “You can play in a 400-yard room with wooden walls, floor and ceiling straight away with a washtub at the end and somebody’s going to make a 6.” — Ed Seay, the late president of Arnold Palmer Course Design
• “The guy who pays the freight [plays the course every day] can’t play these hard courses that have been built the last few years. The deep traps and gullies, the 175-yard carries over canyons scare him to death.” — Sam Snead
• “There are a lot of great holes on the Stadium Course at PGA West. It’s a great course. But ask yourself, ‘How would I like to play the Road Hole [at St. Andrews] 18 times in a round of golf?’” — Brit Clive Clark
• “Anybody can lop off an arm, but these guys [golf course shapers] can do delicate facial stuff.” — Lester George
• “Playing tournament golf is a wisp-of-the-will existence. When you win a tournament, it is soon forgotten by the general public. Whereas when a golf course is finished and is being played, it is there for a long, long time and is in living memory for a long time." — Tom Weiskopf
• “Minimalism is a movement in art. Unless it is very strong and well executed, there is a yawning emptiness to a golf course designed with minimalism as a goal—somewhat like a stripped-down Chevrolet. By the same token, I think the excesses of the 1980s, which required 14 men on Flymos to maintain the bunker slopes, are on their way out.” — the late Desmond Muirhead
• “I think what happened for awhile was that the frame became more important than the painting. And now we’re getting back to making sure the painting is what we’re designing.” — Rees Jones
• “North American golf tends to be played, like yard darts, through the air. You hit it from spot to spot.” — Dr. Michael Hurdzan
• “I avoid sharp doglegs in only two situations: where there are trees bordering the fairway, and where there aren’t!” — Jeff Brauer
• “I could never put [Donald] Ross and [A.W.] Tillinghast over [Alister] Mackenzie and [C.B.] Macdonald. Can you do a composite?” — Ben Crenshaw, when asked who he would hire to design a course.
• “I get a little ornery when people speak of the great work Mackenzie and Ross did. They had the pick of a candy store!" — Robert von Hagge
• “We call ourselves the Dead Architects Society.” — Ed Connor of Golforms, Inc., course architect who works to preserve, via GPS technology, the classic courses by saving their data on computer

In the companion work: The Grooming's the Thing!, Leslie reveals hundreds of insights, tips, buffs and rebuffs from turfgrass experts in all points of the country — from Tim Hiers in Florida to Ted Horton in California.