Confidential Guide to Golf Courses - Tom Doak

[sabram]

A few days ago I received Tom Doak’s recently updated version of the Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. For many of you who post here it is something you might want to consider adding to your Christmas gift list. The original version from 1988 was controversial due to Doak’s criticism of some well-known courses at a time when he was a virtual unknown. Since then Doak has become one of today’s most well respected GCAs with a number of his designs, including, Pacific Dunes, Ballyneal and Barnbougle Dunes being recognized as among the best in the world. Unlike the previous editions of the Confidential Guide, which covered courses from around the world in a single volume, the new edition is being released in five volumes based on geography. The first volume, which is the only one now available, covers the courses of Great Britain and Ireland. The remaining volumes will be released annually with the second volume to be released in 2015 covering the southern half of the United States as well as Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. As a result, in the aggregate a greater number of courses will be covered. The new edition also includes lots of photos. However, it is not primarily a photo book or a coffee table book. It is a resource that will give you a perspective on the better courses in the regions covered. It can be a guide to help in planning golf trips or to just mentally re-visit courses you’ve played, learn about courses you’d want to play but may never see, or to compare your perspective to Doak’s. If you like golf courses, it’s a fun read.

 

The course descriptions mostly range from a paragraph to a few paragraphs for most courses. There are also longer articles about the authors’ favorite courses, which they call the “Gourmets’ choices”. Most of the shorter descriptions include brief descriptions of best holes and the respective strengths and weaknesses of a course. In addition, a rating is assigned to each course based on the “Doak Scale”. Doak makes the point that the scale is not intended as a method of ranking golf courses, but rather is only intended to describe the relative merits of courses from his perspective. Notwithstanding that admonition, I’m sure that most readers will look at the scale as a ranking of courses. The Doak Scale is very different from other course ratings. For example, the Golf Digest ratings have the vast majority of courses with a rating between three and four and a half stars. That doesn’t offer much distinction among courses and can lead to the false conclusion that almost all courses are very good and of almost comparable merit. That results at least in part from the fact that most of the GD "star" ratings come from players who haven’t seen hundreds of courses and therefore don’t have a broad base for making comparisons. They think that the best from among the few they’ve seen are great, when in fact they haven’t seen many of the great courses. The Doak Scale on the other hand has many more layers which makes sense since Doak and the three other contributors to the Guide have played more than 2,500 courses. A “3” on the Doak Scale is as an average course in the world. That provides a range from 4 to 10 to describe the above-average courses with greater nuance, with there being fewer courses in each category as you move up the Scale. There are only 5 courses in GB&I that receive a “10” from any of the four contributors and only eight others that receive a “9”. For me, the 5’s, 6’s 7’s and 8’s are the most interesting reads.

 

It should be noted that for the new edition Doak enlisted three like-minded compadres to also provide input on the courses and ratings. One of them is Darius Oliver, the author of “Planet Golf” and “Planet Golf USA”, two beautiful coffee table books with awesome photographs, which I highly recommend. The Planet Golf books cover fewer courses, but go into more detail about the courses covered. For the most part all four contributors to the Confidential Guide score courses very similarly. Rarely is there more than a one point difference among them on their Doak Scale ratings. It would have been interesting if in the instances where their ratings differed by more than one point they had they included a discussion about why they disagreed. As it is, you are just left to the conclusion that like with art, wine or music, people with very similar tastes can disagree on the merits of a particular painting, vintage or song.

 

The back of the book includes a gazetteer that has more than 70 interesting lists such as best par 3’s , best bunkers, best courses to play with your dog... The list that I think will be most frequently consulted is the list of all courses covered in the book in order of Doak Scale Rating. With few exceptions this list is not extremely different from other lists of “best” courses. It is the exceptions that are most interesting. For example, The Addington, which I recently played for the first time is rated very highly by all 4 contributors (which I agree with), while Lundin is rated only a “3” by one of them, which I can’t understand. There is one course where Doak is 5 points different than the others. I’ll leave it to those of you who have played that course to determine who is correct. You’ll have to buy the book to see which course it is.

 

There are few controversial reviews in the first volume. Most of the more controversial reviews I expect will be in the next two volumes that cover U.S. courses. I think that will be because of the fact that GB&I have such a high percentage of old, classic courses that the author prefers and fewer of the late 20^th century real estate community courses and “eye candy” courses where lots of earth was moved, waterfalls added and quirk eliminated. If you’re looking for a book that may provide some new insight on approximately 300 of the best golf courses in Great Britain and Ireland this is worth adding to your library. It can be ordered on the Renaissance Golf website:

http://www.renaissan..._guide_to_golf/

[GPoppaPump]

Great heads up on this book. Looking forward to getting my copy.

[Clambake]

Nice overview, and thanks for taking the time to write it up. I've got a first edition of his original Confidential Guide, a pretty hard to find book, and I really love his course evaluations. It is very refreshing to see a course through an architect's eye instead of the usual pablum reviews pumped out by the various golf magazines.

[sabram]

[quote name='Clambake' timestamp='1416002890' post='10448243']
I've got a first edition of his original Confidential Guide, a pretty hard to find book, and I really love his course evaluations. It is very refreshing to see a course through an architect's eye instead of the usual pablum reviews pumped out by the various golf magazines.
[/quote]

+1

The first edition is rare and valuable. I've seen some on e-bay and Amazon for very high $$$

He signed the first several hundred of the new one. Not sure if there are any of the signed ones left.

[cardoustie]

I'm going to grab a copy, thx for the heads up

[Marand]

Isn't there some controversy about his ratings of one of his major competitior's courses?

[sabram]

[quote name='Marand' timestamp='1416019377' post='10449501']
Isn't there some controversy about his ratings of one of his major competitior's courses?
[/quote]

There is one course that he rated zero that the others rated a 5. It is the biggest disparity among almost 300 courses in the book.

A Doak zero means it's a course [color=#000000] "so contrived and unnatural that it may poison your mind, one I cannot recommend under any circumstances. Reserved for courses that wasted ridiculous sums of money in their construction, and probably shouldn’t have been built in the first place." a 5 means the course is "[/color][color=#000000]Well above the average golf course, A good course to choose if you’re in the vicinity and looking for a game[/color][color=#000000]."[/color]

[color=#000000][size=3]I guess you could call that disparity "controversial."[/size][/color]

[Marand]

[quote name='sabram' timestamp='1416020459' post='10449593']
[quote name='Marand' timestamp='1416019377' post='10449501']
Isn't there some controversy about his ratings of one of his major competitior's courses?
[/quote]

There is one course that he rated zero that the others rated a 5. It is the biggest disparity among almost 300 courses in the book.

A Doak zero means it's a course [color=#000000] "so contrived and unnatural that it may poison your mind, one I cannot recommend under any circumstances. Reserved for courses that wasted ridiculous sums of money in their construction, and probably shouldn’t have been built in the first place." a 5 means the course is "[/color][color=#000000]Well above the average golf course, A good course to choose if you’re in the vicinity and looking for a game[/color][color=#000000]."[/color]

[color=#000000][size=3]I guess you could call that disparity "controversial."[/size][/color]
[/quote]

Yes, I had a faint memory of something like that. A revenge rating?

[Guia]

Sounds like a good read, I'll check it out. Thanks

[cdnrockies]

Thanks for sharing this!

[sabram]

[quote name='Marand' timestamp='1416020705' post='10449627']
[quote name='sabram' timestamp='1416020459' post='10449593']
[quote name='Marand' timestamp='1416019377' post='10449501']
Isn't there some controversy about his ratings of one of his major competitior's courses?
[/quote]

There is one course that he rated zero that the others rated a 5. It is the biggest disparity among almost 300 courses in the book.

A Doak zero means it's a course [color=#000000] "so contrived and unnatural that it may poison your mind, one I cannot recommend under any circumstances. Reserved for courses that wasted ridiculous sums of money in their construction, and probably shouldn’t have been built in the first place." a 5 means the course is "[/color][color=#000000]Well above the average golf course, A good course to choose if you’re in the vicinity and looking for a game[/color][color=#000000]."[/color]

[color=#000000][size=3]I guess you could call that disparity "controversial."[/size][/color]
[/quote]

Yes, I had a faint memory of something like that. A revenge rating?
[/quote]

I don't think it's a revenge rating. Based on his own comments, he thought they spent an awful lot of money moving a lot of earth on a site that wasn't so good, that they just shouldn't have built a course there. I haven't played the course and there are a lot of great courses within spitting distance of this course so I think that also led to the bad rating based on the thought that it shouldn't have been built.

Having said that, I'd guess that if I had played the course and not taken the building expense into account or compared it to nearby courses, I would have rated it closer to the 5's that the others gave it.

[cdnrockies]

Ummm....for those of us that haven't read the first edition what course are you guys talking about???

[fore_life]

[quote name='cdnrockies' timestamp='1416022317' post='10449745']
Ummm....for those of us that haven't read the first edition what course are you guys talking about???
[/quote]

+1

[sabram]

[quote name='cdnrockies' timestamp='1416022317' post='10449745']
Ummm....for those of us that haven't read the first edition what course are you guys talking about???
[/quote]

I didn't want to post it as a spoiler for those who will get the book. I'll send you a PM

[duffer987]

If you've played Arcadia Bluffs, you've more or less already played it.
There is a thread in the travel forum from the summer where a number of us chime in on it and most would fall on Doak's side of the ledger.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Thanks Sabram will be ordering a copy in the morning

[Texsport]

Been waiting for this expanded and updated series.

I have every edition, including the signed and numbered original.

His criticisms have been more muted since his 1st effort!

Texsport

[Texsport]

[quote name='freddiec' timestamp='1382394569' post='8036561']
Wally, great post. I'm pretty sure Dave Wood put fiber inserts in the Wood Bros drivers, thats what he told me.. Who knew that pressed paper would result in such a hard finished product.
[/quote]

Got the 1st volume of the new edition.

It's signed and very impressive looking - glossy paper with many color photographs.

This is a series to be completed and released over the coming months and years.

Texsport

[pga43]

Just got my copy (signed by Tom) of the 1st in this new series. Just waiting for the rest of the series to be shipped.


Greg

[sabram]

Just a heads up... Volume 2, ("Winter Destinations") which includes the Southern U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America can now be ordered on Doak's website. They will start shipping around October 1. [url="http://www.renaissancegolf.com/books/buy_the_guide"]http://www.renaissancegolf.com/books/buy_the_guide[/url]

[kizdoc]

Just ordered it. Thanks for the heads up.

[Fbgstaff]

Has anyone received their volume yet? I have been eagerly awaiting mine and can't wait to start reading through it

[raynorfan1]

[quote name='Fbgstaff' timestamp='1444711270' post='12448870']
Has anyone received their volume yet? I have been eagerly awaiting mine and can't wait to start reading through it
[/quote]

Yep. Sitting on my coffee table right now.

[kizdoc]

Was reading it last night. Signed by the man himself. Great stuff!

[raynorfan1]

I found Volume 2 a bit of a let down. Maybe it's just that I have more familiarity with US courses than those in the UK, but I felt like the "GC" courses were too plentiful and all kind of obvious (with the notable exclusion of ANGC from the list), and there were few - if any - ratings that I would argue are "controversial" in any way.

The beauty of the book, in my opinion, is to identify courses off the beaten path that are special in ways that the average Golf Digest rater might not appreciate. I don't think Volume 2 hit that mark.

[sabram]

[quote name='raynorfan1' timestamp='1444756643' post='12450776']
I felt like the "GC" courses were too plentiful and all kind of obvious (with the notable exclusion of ANGC from the list),
[/quote]

Huh? There are only 18 Gourmet Choice courses in the book. Same as Vol 1 and I assume the same for the future volumes. How is 18 "too plentiful"? If anything, I'd want more of the longer articles like the 18 "GC" rather than fewer. I don't understand how you can say they were "all kind of obvious". Really... Audobon Park, Cal Club, Diamante, Mid Ocean, Old Town, Poterillo de Laretta, Sand Hollow, Wolf Point (That's Point, not Creek.) I'd bet that the vast majority of GolfWrx readers know very little about most of those and haven't even heard of some of them. I thought it is a nice mix of well known and not so famous courses.

PS - Very nice photo of Sand Hollow o page 29