A Hole By Hole Special--
The Coffee Table Golf Book Reviews!

Big Books filled with pictures.

Big Books filled with pictures that look good on the coffee table.

That's why I call them The Coffee Table Golf Books!

Frankly, these Big Books are perfect for gift-giving. Take a look below and pick one or more out for your favorite golfer!

Looking for more? Just click on any of the three other sets of mini-reviews at the Hole By Hole Bookstore:

The Little Golf Book Reviews
The 1999 Holiday Gift Golf Book Selections
The 2000 Holiday Gift Golf Book Selections

In addition, the Bookstore has dozens of other selections, with full-length reviews.  Just click to the Pastbooks Page and pick one or two.

Click on the book titles or book covers below to buy one or more of these books today! You'll want to give these books to your favorite golfer!

This is a Very Big Book, about 15 inches high, and 11 inches across. It is primarily a great collection of photographs of the Grand Slam winner and premier golfer of the 20’s and 30’s. The text includes short essays from such notables as Ben Crenshaw, Alistair Cooke, Nick Seitz, Peter Dobereiner, and Dave Anderson. These essays describe the man, his era, and his impact on golf, and take up the first quarter or so of the book.

The photographs dominate the remainder of the book. It concludes with pictures of the memorial service for Mr. Jones at St. Andrews in 1972, shortly after his death.

This Big Book describes the 47 courses that have hosted the USGA’s premier event, from Atlanta CC to Worcester CC. The beautiful pictures, most of which are in color, show well the host courses for harshest test of tournament golf since its beginnings over 100 years ago. Each course is devoted about 3 to 4 pages apiece, so it’s a quick read, but visually impressive.

The text describes some of the more memorable events from the Opens that occurred on each course. Since some of these courses no longer exist, the author also details what happened to them.

The title of this Big Book should probably be reworked to reflect its actual emphasis on the beginnings and "Classic" eras of American golf. It uses rare old photographs, patent drawings, and advertisements to depict the world of golf up to about 1930. The text shoots forward in one spot or two all the way to 1950, with a quote from Ben Hogan.

In keeping with the chosen subject matter, all the pictures, and I mean all of them, are printed in sepia tone. I assume this was an attempt to create a antique brown, "old-time" look. It’s a nice touch, but an occasional black-and-white print wouldn't have hurt for variety's sake.

This is truly a couch potato’s delight. Peper, long-time editor of Golf Magazine, devotes most of this Big Book to a description of the courses used on the PGA Tour. Representative courses used on the LPGA, Senior PGA, Nike Tour, and even a few Silly Season events, are also set out in good detail.

There are hole-by-hole graphics, well-done photographs, and even a guide to help the TV viewer learn which holes to watch closely during the tournament coverage. For those free with cash, he also lists the typical sums paid to play in the Wednesday pro-ams (in 1995 dollars).

Another Nick Edmund production, this Big Book uses Strokesaver-brand graphics to recreate the hole-by-hole course diagrams for the 25 courses described in it. Over 500 pictures also fill the book with great shots of such well-known courses as St. Andrews and Royal Dornoch, as well as lesser-known layouts. For the golfer who likes yardage books and nice pictures, this is a fabulous combination.

This Big Book highlights 39 courses across the country. Many of the usual suspects are here in all their glory: Augusta National, Winged Foot, Oakland Hills, Pebble Beach, etc. Each course receives 6 pages of description, including a full color, digitized course map. More than 200 color photographs, and plenty of anecdotes, fill the pages nicely.

If you're looking for golf books, calendars or other golf stuff we haven't reviewed yet, click on this image: