OFF THE TOP SHELF MORE THAN JUST A BEAUTY CONTEST FOR THIS FORTUNATE 500.Byline: - Tom Hoffarth --The book: ``The 500 World's Greatest Golf Holes'' --The authors: George Peper and the editors of Golf Magazine --The essential info: Artisan Publishing, 442 pgs, $60 --The task: They've figured out there are nearly 30,000 courses in the world these days, which means there's about a half-million holes to choose from for this project. A little daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin ? --The execution: List books like these have been done before - just look in the bargain pile of the local bookstore. So what makes this different? The editors of Golf Magazine wanted to give a few lesser-known holes their due, so they recruited writers from publications in South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , Scandinavia, South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. and Far East to help. They also used high-quality paper, updated hand-drawn graphics (of the top 18) and relied on the breathtaking photographs to get your attention. Narrowing it down to those that not only excite golfers but inspire and challenge them, they've broken it down first by the top 18, then the top 100 before reorganizing the top 500 alphabetically al·pha·bet·i·cal also al·pha·bet·ic adj. 1. Arranged in the customary order of the letters of a language. 2. Of, relating to, or expressed by an alphabet. and by par. --Local beauties: Holes in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, that made the list are the 10th at both Bel-Air and Riviera (in the top 100) and the fourth and 18th at Riviera, 18th at Wilshire, 14th and 17th at Bel-Air, 17th at Pelican Hill North and the 11th and 16th at Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Country Club North (in the top 500). --Don't overlook: A compilation of lists called ``The Best of the Best'' (pgs 380-435), which groups the world's greatest holes together in more than two dozen ways. Such as best holes by number, most scenic, most strategic, longest (includes Riviera's 236-yard par 3 3rd), best short par 4s (with Riviera's 311-yard 10th), plus best mountain, ocean, water, bunkers, hardest-to-putt greens, best designed since 1970, and, to give you hope, the best holes you can actually get a chance to play on (such as Pebble Pebble - A polymorphic language. ["A Kernel Language for Abstract Data Types and Modules", R.M. Burstall & B. Lampson, in Semantics of Data Types, LNCS 173, Springer 1984]. Beach's 18th and the 17th at St. Andrews). --Is it worth $60? Only if you don't buy it for yourself. Let someone get it for you as a gift and save the dough for green fees. |
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