Golf Courses of the World: 365 Days a worthy sequel to first book

I normally wouldn’t endorse buying a re-released book when its original was just published a short five years ago.

But a lot can happen in five years, especially when it comes to building golf courses.

The revised and updated version of “Golf Courses of the World: 365 Days” published by Abrams went on sale this month. I have raved about its format before.

The book’s size - it’s half of a coffee table book – and format – geared to showcase a course a day for a year – are convenient and unique. More than half of its content is new from the 2005 version that became an international best seller. Roughly 200 of the courses profiled are new to the volume. Many have opened in the past five years.

While author Robert Sidorsky does a fine job in his profiles, the true star in this series are the 500 photographs of places we all dream about. Sidorsky’s words are short, stepping aside to let the pictures tell the story. More than half of the 744 pages are giant portraits of a golf playground in some far-flung destination. An index in the back of the book lists the courses by state and country.

A great gift for Father’s Day, the “Golf Courses of the World: 365 Days” retails for $29.95.