Product Description

An acclaimed Scottish golf course architect who had to go to America to make his name lands the most coveted commission in all of golf: to design the first new course in almost a century for the town of St. Andrews, the game’s ancestral home.

David McLay Kidd became a wunderkind golf course architect before he was thirty years old, thanks to his universally lauded design at Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast. When the town of St. Andrews announced in 2001 that a new championship course was in the works—the town’s first since 1914—Kidd fought off all comers and earned the right to make golf history. Author Scott Gummer was there to chronicle the days in the dirt and the nights in the pubs, the politics and histrionics, all with exclusive access to David Kidd, his team, and the St. Andrews Links Trust.

Unfolding in arresting you-are-there scenes, The Seventh at St. Andrews follows the young master at work as Kidd, with his sharp tongue, leads his accomplices in transforming a plot of flat, uninspiring farmland—smack in the middle of which sits the town’s sewage plant—into a rollicking golfing adventure and the most anticipated golf course opening in a generation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #369218 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-26
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
When Scotland's storied St. Andrews Links Trust decided to build a seventh golf course (due to open in 2008), the well-known golf architect David McLay Kidd was commissioned. Golf journalist Gummer's authorized account of the construction project is essentially a story of men pushing dirt into small mounds and planting it with grass. But there's an art to what looks so simple: sculpting both a challenging course and bucolic vistas with a craggy, ancient, organic look out of a potato field dominated by a sewage treatment plant; balancing playability with aesthetic, drainage and maintenance considerations; selecting bunker sand; and defending newly seeded turf against trespassers and rabbits. Gummer's engaging narrative, dotted with Kidd's hole-by-hole analyses, captures these nuances. Unfortunately, the author trowels on hype worthy of a playoff round. Kidd's management style is like a run-and-shoot passing attack, while his bulldozer crews possessed the vision, the talent and the balls to lead and not just follow. Gummer's inapt sports metaphors segue into business-speak: DMK Golf Design is no different from a successful sports team... total commitment is paramount. Readers will have to hack their way out of knee-high clichés to get to the fairway. (Oct.)
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From Booklist
David Kidd is certainly the only contemporary golf-course architect whose work has been the subject of two books: first came Dream Golf (2006), about the construction of Bandon Dunes, a links-style public course on the Oregon coast, and now this nearly shovel-by-shovel re-creation of the building of the seventh course at St. Andrews (to open in 2008), the first new construction in nearly a century on the hallowed ground where golf was born. Veteran journalist Gummer was there throughout the process, and he succeeds in making a kind of high drama out of bulldozers, dirt-moving, shaping greens, and the near-mystical mix of art and science that goes into routing a golf course. Unlike in Stephen Goodwin's account of Bandon Dunes, however, there is a little too much of an "authorized history" tone here, too much selling of Kidd's management style. But the story itself will enthrall those with an interest in golf history and architecture: digging in the dirt of St. Andrews can never be done casually, and Gummer makes us feel the weight of the past on every turn of the soil. Ott, Bill

Review
Jim Nantz
"A masterpiece is written about a masterpiece that is built. A book that will be read and reviewed for as long as the great game of golf is ever played." --CBS Sports

Customer Reviews

Scott Gummer Hits a Hole in One
As a non golfer who has never even walked a course I enjoyed this book immensely. Mr. Gummer brings the entire process of course building to life and his book is populated with larger than life characters. A great read and a perfect present for any golfer.

Very Bias
Hi, I'm David McLay Kidd and I wanted you to know what fun is was working with Scott on this book, he captured both the artistic and social level of what I and my team do and MOST importantly WHY we do it. I have been amazed at the positive comments I have received from those that have read the book, it reallys seems to capture the imagination of golfers. I hope you enjoy it. David...

St Andrews Castle course build
I bought this book as preparation for a golfing trip to where else St Andrews. We booked Castle course witout ever having seen the course but offcourse knowing the architect by reputation (Bandon sound familiar?).
The book turns out to be even better than we hoped its a great read just do not start reading late at night cause it is hard to put away...