Harry Colt contributed essays to the Martin Sutton’s The Book of the Links. An early book on golf course architecture, this predates his own book by 8 years.
Colt wrote on The Construction of New Courses in Chapter 1. He gives an overview of Seaside, Heather, Common Land, Parkland, Clay and Forest courses. There is great information to be found here that you won’t come across anywhere else. He names New Zealand as the first forest course and Swinley Forest thereafter.
Chapter 5 is dedicated to Golf Architecture. This chapter is jam-packed with nuggets of wisdom and insight you’d expect from one of the games greatest.
Although there are only two chapters from Harry Colt in The Book of the Links, it is a must-read for any Colt fan. The strategic mind was in full flow and no doubt can there be that the transition from the penal school to the strategic was well and truly underway.
There is one chapter from Bernard Darwin who is always worth the effort to read. The remaining contributions are from Sutton and other prominent greenkeepers from the UK.
