C.B. Macdonald (1855-1939) was all about golf. As a capable player, he won the first U.S. Amateur golf championship in 1895. As an advocate for the game, he was instrumental in founding the USGA, which remains the ruling organization in American golf to this day. And as a designer he fashioned some of the most lasting and applauded tests of golf, including the National Golf Links of America, the Yale University golf course, and the Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda. This lifelong devotion to golf can be attributed to, among other things, his education at St. Andrews University in Scotland, a town whose Old Course is considered the home of golf. His National Golf Links actually emulates some of the Old Course's holes (11, 14, 17) in combination with designs taken from other classic holes in the British Isles. The shaping of the course on Long Island is one of the stories in this book that I found fascinating, even though Macdonald is highly immodest (his claims to be the first and best at doing this and that are tiring after a while) and he alternates chapters about golf course architecture with those on the USGA. For me, the chapters on architecture are the most rewarding, but others will find the chapters on rules and organized golf the same. ( )