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I bought this for my husband as a gift and he loves it. It has beautiful pictures and any golf lover will be impressed by the photos. Be warned- this book will make you start planning your next golf trip very soon.
There is so much to be gained by just traveling willy-nilly to the "little" places such as going the 5 miles to Girvan to play the odd little half-links course there while on your Tour Bus trip to Turnberry. I do own this book.I love links golf as much as anyone, but Jim Finnegan is like Will Rogers, he never met a golf course he could criticize. This is a fine and wonderful even feel good book, but know its limitations.This book is lovely to look at but don't expect any critical reviews here. Links is not just some eccentricity that one must do to complete one's golf life. There you can meet and play with locals on their course while playing 8 of the best par 3's you will ever play and not approach the wee par of 64.Indeed, this is where golf is great, but the book offers an incomplete elitist view of the American obsession with only the best. Jim is quite a passionate fellow but take the writings with as a starting point.
Finnegan merely gives a third of a page coverage. Larry Lambrecht's photographs are spectacular and many of the recommendations for lodging and outside activities are only safe at best. As an example, the book almost excludes the fine Kintyre course which Mr. Those with real experience will recognize that the book is written to highlight the highs and ignore the quirks and exacerbates the American golfer's tendency to go and notch the belt by visiting "only the best" golf courses often at astronomical prices. There is a lot to be learned by visiting many "little" golf courses in the UK and Ireland to truly understand how links golf is a such a treasure and how it is part of local life. Girvan, what Girvan.
I do admit that for most, this is probably all they ever really wanted in the first place.
As a Scot who has played most of the courses Jim Finegan has reviewed in this and his previous books, there's very little to dispute, and the pictures do convey the wonderful beauty of many of them, especially Machrie, Boat of Garten and others. However he seems to have toned down the criticisms of some courses he made in the prose books, and I find his Damascene conversion to Carnoustie a little strange; it hasn't changed THAT much since he was pretty scathing (unjustly, IMO) about it in the other book. Despite all that, Jim clearly knows what he is talking about, and I loved flicking through this so much I bought a copy for me and my golf-mad uncle.
If you're planning a golf trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland, check out the courses in this book. Full-color photographs will whet your appetite before you go.
In the world's "Top 100 of golf books" this is, for me, alone at #1. Finegan. The photographs alone make this book a bargain.
We have found Mr. They are full-page and they are stunning. We are planning our fourth trip to Ireland/Scotland (3 to Ireland, the next to Scotland) and have used this book as a starting point for each.
There are a ton of them. Finegan to be most accurate in his assessments of the courses (along with the "Hidden Links" group), and, more importantly that he devotes the proper coverage proportionately to the proper courses. (We go for 11 or 12 days, play between 8 and 11 courses, and may not get there again, so it is important to us to put together the best group of courses possible).
Our sincere thanks to Mr. Extraordinary at $38.
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