Depending on your handicap, the name Tom Fazio either strikes fear in your heart or sets your blood rising to the challenge. One of the most celebrated course designers of the past three decades, Fazio has left his imprint on such showcase tracks as Kiawah Island Club, Grayhawk, Butler National, Barton Creek, Hartefeld National, and the TPC at Myrtle Beach. His beautifully illustratedGolf Course Designsopens a window onto the thinking that went into those and other courses--and understanding a designer's intentions is as powerful a weapon as any club in the bag.

Using his own designs as his laboratory, Fazio, through text and pictures, unveils the mystery of his methods and the ways in which technology has affected changes in golf course architecture through the 20th century. As difficult as Fazio's courses can play, he emphasizes that his intention isn't to punish golfers--though he has no problem with punishing bad shots--but to inspire golfers by providing a fair test of skill, whatever a player's skill level, in the most dramatic setting possible. To that end, he explains how he routes a course, where and why he sets bunkers and hazards, how he frames a hole for aesthetic appeal, how he sets greens and tees, when he leaves the landscape as he finds it, and why he brings in bulldozers to move what nature didn't provide to his liking.

"The classic tension in golf course design as I see it," he writes, "is not between risk and reward, but between playability and difficulty.... Even if a client wanted to build the toughest course around, I would argue that it should be fair." A golfer who can learn to use each hole's inherent fairness to advantage is a golfer who can post better scores. And, in the end, that's the most important secret Fazio's attractive volume reveals.--Jeff Silverman