Great Britain and Ireland

by Tom Doak, Ran Morrissett (Contributor), Masa Nishijima (Contributor)

This all-new edition of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses will be published in five volumes, which will cover more than 2,500 of the world’s best courses.

Volume 1 - Great Britain and Ireland
Volume 2 - The Americas (winter destinations)
Volume 3 - The Americas (summer destinations)
Volume 4 - Europe, Middle East and Africa
Volume 5 - Asia, Australia and New Zealand

Each review is written by world class architect Tom Doak based on his own personal observations plus the input of his three co-authors, Ran Morrissett, Masa Nishijima, and Darius Oliver. Each course is graded on a 0-10 scale by each author who has seen it. These reviews will provide honest and unvarnished viewers from the authors that will help you plan your golf vacations, business side trips and golf adventures. The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses is the most collected and most referenced golf book in the modern era.

The first volume highlights courses in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Genres: Nonfiction

180 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Criss · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy that Tom et al. are doing a worldwide set of the Confidential Guide. The original was written when Tom was a young, up and coming golf architect. While highly entertaining, there were some pretty biting reviews of courses. As a reader, I highly enjoyed them; however, other golf course architects didn't take as kindly to his words in a profession that was not used to criticism from the ranks.

Now arguably the most sought after golf course architect today, Tom has teamed up with others to re-boot the Guide. Obviously with 5 volumes, this one will cover many more courses and will be more in-depth than the original.

This volume starts out with the home of golf: Great Britain and Ireland. All of the big courses are in here and some you may not have heard of. I was kind of disappointed to see a couple of courses not be listed that I thought warranted mention, but all-in-all I have few complaints. The reviews are good and honor the spirit of the original well. Maybe not as critical (save one course, which you'll have to read to see), but all entertaining. Good photos throughout as well. Can't wait for the other volumes to come out in the next few years.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courses I've played that were not included in the book, along with the Doak score I would give them.

England:
Trevose - 7
Mullion - 4 (with one all-world hole)
Burnham Beeches - 5
Bath - 5
West Sussex - 5

Ireland:
North West - 5
Doak's own St. Patrick's - 8