The Player's View

Scribble

A feast of photography, an informed commentary

Every hole, exactly as the player sees it.

Three different ways of looking at the game: intimate portraits of a single course, critical guides rating hundreds more, and works of golfing fiction that aren't afraid to bend the truth. Limited-edition coffee table books, The Pocket Guide to Golf Courses, and golf writing — taking readers from tee to green on some of the world's finest courses.

Limited-edition hardback volumes of no more than 1,000 copies, published for individual clubs — part promotional tool, part independent design history, never a substitute for a club's own history.

II.

The Pocket Guide to Golf Courses

Small-format guides rating courses for design and facilities on a system akin to the Michelin stars, published in print, magazine and on-line editions since 2004.

III.

The Doonbeg Ghosts

A work of fiction by Ivan Morris, foreword by Greg Turner — golfers past and present, all sharing the same fairways at Doonbeg.

Explore the Books

Featured Volume

Menaggio & Cadenabbia Golf Club

Italy's second oldest golf course, perched above Lake Como, restored after the war with the support of famous cricketer Ted Dexter's family and reshaped by Commander John Harris. Its full story — from J H Taylor's original nine to a masterplan for the future — unfolds through the eyes of the course's chief protagonists.

"The book overflows with landscape photographs that capture a most extraordinary atmosphere and topography — photographs that are alive, not just snapshots in time." — Player's View: Menaggio Review

Discover the Book Buy Now

Snap

Landscape photography of record

Nearly every image is taken from the angle a player would experience while actually playing the hole — no tinted skies, no romantic embellishment (unless for real, as in Karlstejn 25 below). William fforde's photographs form part of The Hynes Collection at the University of St Andrews.

Mid Ocean, hole 4, into the sun with player shadows

Mid Ocean, Hole 4 — Bermuda

St Enodoc, Church Course, Hole 11 — England

Karlstejn, Hole 25 — Czech Republic

View the Photography

Shape

Course Design & Restoration

Beyond the books and photographs, William fforde works part-time as a golf course designer and restorer — often in collaboration with Greg Turner and/or Scott Macpherson. Projects have included work for St George's Hill, Menaggio & Cadenabbia, Marbella CC, Afandou (Rhodes), Valderrama and, most recently, a masterplan for a new course near Bolgheri, in Tuscany.

See the Work

Greenside construction works at Menaggio & Cadenabbia Golf Club

Greenside works in progress — Menaggio & Cadenabbia

For Clubs

Commission a book for your course

To have your course covered by The Player's View, please get in touch — and help build the world's largest permanent collection of golf course photography, held at the University of St Andrews.

Get in Touch