Golf, As It Was Meant To Be Played: A Celebration of Donald Ross's Vision of the Game

True lovers of the game would rather crawl into a pot bunker than imagine a golfing universe untouched by the hand of Donald Ross. In the art of coaxing courses from the landscape, his was the most sought-after signature through the first four decades of the 20th century. The finest of the classic course architects, he had definite ideas of how the game should be played--hence the title of this stunning photographic tribute--and he shaped his designs accordingly. His design philosophy stressed using what nature provided rather than a wholesale remolding of topography, and the game he sought to promulgate stressed strategy over power, enjoyment over penance. His output was prolific, and the masterpieces he shaped from nature were exceptional: Pinehurst, Seminole, Inverness, Oak Hill, and Congressional.

In Golf, As It Was Meant to Be Played, Michael Fay, the cofounder of the Donald Ross Society, attempts to create the perfect coffee-table Ross tribute by creating the perfect Ross course. His plan mixes and matches 18 different Ross venues to form a single, magnificent, virtual round that any serious player should salivate over. Teeing off at Aronomink Golf Club near Philadelphia and finishing up at Hartford Golf Club in Connecticut, Fay links together 18 strategically challenging and visually arresting holes built from 1907 to 1936. Not necessarily Ross's best holes, they all still play as Ross conceived them; Fay's aim was clearly to celebrate the unadulterated, living, still-relevant Ross rather than some golfing museum piece. To that end, both his knowledgeable text and Paul Rocheleau's evocative photographs blend into a wonderful golfing keepsake that easily obliterates par. --Jeff Silverman