Did you ever read a book about courses in your area?)

[PEZGolf]

In our area, the book is Adirondack Golf Coutses--Past and Present.  This book was written by J. Peter Martin and is THE reference book for our area.

 

[Coronagolfman]

Since I've played a lot of golf in Hawaii over the past 30 years have collected a lot of books about about courses over in the islands.

What is kind of interesting these days is how many private courses have sprung up on the Big Island, Maui and soon on Kauai.  Some 20-25 years ago folks in Hawaii were only concerned with just getting people over to the islands to play golf - green fees were very minimal even for the biggest name courses like Mauna Kea, Princeville or Kapalua - golf then was treated as just another activity to help entice visitors to make the long flight over to the islands and stay a luxury hotels with nice courses on the property.

These days there is now a group of private courses around Hualalai  on the Big Island which has kind of become the new home of the "Rich and Famous" who have second residences there or even live there year round.  Far cry from the '60s when Trent Jones first figured out how to crush the lava to build a foundation for a golf course in the lava fields and build Mauna Kea in a then out-of-way location chosen by Lawrence Rockefeller simply because it had one of the best beaches on the Big Island.  Nowadays it appears that many of the more monied folks on the west coast from LA or SF areas just hop their private jet or grab a first class airline ticket to make the easy 5 hour trip to Hawaii as opposed to hopping in the car to drive to Monterrey or Palm Springs to find warm weather golf in the wintertime.

Also have a fairly substantial collection of books on golf course design and old Shell Wonderful World of Golf VHS tapes found over the years

Edited January 3, 2016 by Coronagolfman

[PEZGolf]

3 hours ago, Coronagolfman said:

Since I've played a lot of golf in Hawaii over the past 30 years have collected a lot of books about about courses over in the islands.

What is kind of interesting these days is how many private courses have sprung up on the Big Island, Maui and soon on Kauai.  Some 20-25 years ago folks in Hawaii were only concerned with just getting people over to the islands to play golf - green fees were very minimal even for the biggest name courses like Mauna Kea, Princeville or Kapalua - golf then was treated as just another activity to help entice visitors to make the long flight over to the islands and stay a luxury hotels with nice courses on the property.

These days there is now a group of private courses around Hualalai  on the Big Island which has kind of become the new home of the "Rich and Famous" who have second residences there or even live there year round.  Far cry from the '60s when Trent Jones first figured out how to crush the lava to build a foundation for a golf course in the lava fields and build Mauna Kea in a then out-of-way location chosen by Lawrence Rockefeller simply because it had one of the best beaches on the Big Island.  Nowadays it appears that many of the more monied folks on the west coast from LA or SF areas just hop their private jet or grab a first class airline ticket to make the easy 5 hour trip to Hawaii as opposed to hopping in the car to drive to Monterrey or Palm Springs to find warm weather golf in the wintertime.

Also have a fairly substantial collection of books on golf course design and old Shell Wonderful World of Golf VHS tapes found over the years

Very nice collections!

[Gib51]

"America's Linksland: A Century of Long Island Golf" by William Quirin is a fantastic history of public and private golf on Long Island.  Touches on the background of many of the established clubs going back to the 1890s.  Lots of details on the birth of Bethpage.  I believe it was written right before the 2002 Open.

A recently published book called "Images of America: Long Island Golf" is more of a photo-history but also discusses the history going back into the 1890s, and also includes a lot of information and photography on extinct courses that have been gone for decades.

[dkolo]

On 1/5/2016 at 7:35 PM, Gib51 said:

A recently published book called "Images of America: Long Island Golf" is more of a photo-history but also discusses the history going back into the 1890s, and also includes a lot of information and photography on extinct courses that have been gone for decades.

I've been meaning to check it out. The author's website, GolfOnLongIsland.com is wonderful. I was travelling to NH and NC last year and was amazed by how lacking those areas were in similar sites that gave hole-by-hole descriptions of all local courses. It has me spoiled.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, dkolo said:

I've been meaning to check it out. The author's website, GolfOnLongIsland.com is wonderful.

Is it? Or is there a typo in there or something…?

[dkolo]

26 minutes ago, iacas said:

Is it? Or is there a typo in there or something…?

For some reason, one has to add the www I think. Or I typoed something I can't spot. 

Either way, here's the link copied from my browser: http://www.golfonlongisland.com/teebox/

[DaveP043]

I haven't read anything about my area, Virginia/Maryland/DC, but I have a bunch of books about golf in general, and golf courses in particular.  I bought one of my favorites after my first trip to Ireland in 2004.  Its called "Emerald Gems: The Links of Ireland" by Lawrence Casey Lambrecht.  Lambrecht is a golf course photographer, and this book is like porn for golfers.  And yes, like I did with Playboy Magazine back in the day, I read the text too.  Lambrecht also provided photos for the book mentioned by @Gib51, "America's Linksland"

[WUTiger]

In our area, we have Golfing Before the Arch: A History of St. Louis Golf, by Jim Healey.

St. Louis Golf History

St. Louis has a number of great courses. In the early 1900s, the Foulis brothers came through and built several courses. (The Foulis boys - former employees of Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews - built dozens of courses across the Midwest). Glen Echo CC is the oldest private club west of the Mississippi, and nearby Normandie GC is the oldest public course WOTM. Both were Foulis projects.

Glen Echo hosted the Olympic golf championship in 1904 (same year as the World's Fair in StL).

And Bellerive CC and Old Warson CC have hosted numerous PGA and USGA events through the years.

[mcanadiens]

Sort of wish we had something like that for my beloved home state of Ohio, but I haven't seen one. Sports history is a particular interest for me and local history is also high on my list.

 

[Gib51]

18 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

Lambrecht also provided photos for the book mentioned by @Gib51, "America's Linksland"

Lambrecht's modern photos are an awesome complement to the historic images in "America's Linksland."  Great stuff.  Quirin also wrote "Golf Courses of the MGA."

Not exclusively Long Island but "Missing Links" (and "Lost Links") by Daniel Wexler has great info on some of the lost/modified courses from the early 1900s, like Meadowbrook and Timber Point.

"Images of America: Long Island Golf" mentioned above has some interesting images I've never seen before, including aerials of places like Lido, Montauk Downs and Bethpage pre-Black.  There's also a cool map showing how the military divvied up Lido when it took over during WWII.