If you’re still looking for that perfect gift for the golf nut in your family I may be able to help. Or I should say Tom Doak can help.
Doak is one of the top golf course designers in the world and isn’t shy about sharing his views on courses, his and others. 
Back in 1988 when he was still an up and comer, he published his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. What at first was his own self-published project of 50 copies it later morphed into a limited run of 1,000 books in 1994.
In 1996 he went full boat with a large, full color volume which sold out at a modest $45 per book. Now it has become a cult classic among course architecture enthusiasts and goes for $300 on Amazon.
Three bills may be a bit much to spend on a gift for your golfer but Doak has the answer.
A newly updated version of his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses is out with many new courses added and Doak’s thorough and sometimes biting assessment on each.
The good news for gift givers: the new volume retails for only $60…plus shipping of course. You can order it here from Doak’s own Renassance Golf Design website.
This is volume one, Great Britain and Ireland and Doak plans to release four other volumes. The Americas will be released in 2015 and one book per year until 2018.
And you can order all five volumes at a discount. Just like Eddie said to Clark in Christmas Vacation, “It’s the gift that keeps on giving.” Now this is no Jelly of the Month Club. This is some serious stuff for any serious golfer.
Doak rates his courses using his Doak Scale with a 0 being so bad it may “poison your mind.” A rating of 10, and there are few of them isn’t perfect but “Nearly perfect.” St. Andrews Old Course pulls a 10 from Doak who is as minimal as a minimalist architect can be.
But he isn’t afraid to speak his mind even when it comes to St. Andrews: he rates David McLay Kidd’s Castle Course as a big fat, Zero. He said the Links Trust handicapped Kidd and the land was less than perfect. “Trying to one up Kingsbarns turned out to be a formula for excess.”
So, if you are still looking for something special for that hard to buy for golfer Doak’s latest would certainly be a big hit.
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