Golf architect Richard Mandell (author of this month's Pioneer piece on Donald Ross, see p26) has put together something truly monumental with this volume. Pinehurst's role in the history of golf in the US cannot be downplayed, and Mandell's book is a fitting tribute. He shows how the resort's courses have evolved down the years, chronicles the people involved, and, just for good measure, looks at the other courses that have made the North Carolina sandhills area such a golfing mecca.

Pinehurst's crowned greens are famous, and associated by many with the resort's main designer, Donald Ross, but Mandell – who has himself redone a number of Ross' courses – shows the extent to which those greens have changed over the years. This book may be a niche interest, but a more comprehensive survey you will go far to find.

T Eliot Press, US$65.00 www.golf-architecture.com