I first met Dave in February 2022 in The StAndrews Golf Club when he brought along four folders full of images and text, all meticulously indexed. He explained his vision for the book and enthusiastically went through his collection of images with me.

Initially, it seemed a daunting project, but I was very happy to work with Dave on the challenge. Above is Dave (right) with Tom Coyne, an American author, client and friend who kindly wrote the Fore Word.

The book opens with a short history of caddies and forecaddies, the latter being the young lads who would be located up the fairway, ahead of the players, to locate the landing places of their drives. At a time when golf balls were expensive items, no-one would want to lose their ball!

Part Two recalls the stories and antics of ‘The Dawn Patrol’, the local StAndrews caddies who would turn up at the course at first dawn to grab a golfer’s bag. If lucky, they might ‘double-bag’ by also taking an afternoon bag. Good exercise, but often their extra payment would only last as long as the nearest pub!

Dave recounts the life and many humorous stories of all the caddies he knew during his 30 years on the links. Some of these had to be edited!

It wasn’t unusual for American Presidents to turn up at The Old Course, and Dave records the visits of Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as numerous famous actors, royalty and golfing royalty.

Throughout its 180 pages, there features many wonderful photographs which were specially provided by golf photographer David Lawrence. Over the years, David managed to capture many excellent images of Dave and his fellow caddies on the course with their clients.

Part Three tells the story of how local caddie Tip Anderson developed a winning partnership with Arnold Palmer. David Joy, a local artist, playwright, illustrator and golfer, known worldwide for his impersonations of Old Tom Morris, had, over the years, interviewed Tip about his experiences with Palmer and very kindly offered Dave Coyne all his information for inclusion in the book.

Part Four offers Tip’s advice on how he advised his player, Arnold Palmer, around the Old Course, combined with more up-to-date advice from Dave.

Over the years, Dave had developed and printed several versions of course guides for the use of local and visiting golfers alike, and the book shows some of these.

Unfortunately, Dave, centre above, died in May 2023, only halfway through the production of the book. However, his writing and images were so well indexed that it was possible for myself, Dave’s wife, daughters and friends to complete the book, have it printed in August 2024, and launched during The Dunhill that year.

It is so sad he could not see his dream become reality, but hope he would have been very proud of what we produced as his legacy.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Taba in 2024 and to have such amazing images to work with, sourced from all around the world.

The book is 352 pages of wonderful stories and beautiful places, golf courses, vineyards and wineries.

… and golf course designers talk about the land that inspires them to build golf courses!

There’s even a section on golfers who have their own vineyard and wine label.

Once occupied by three-time Open winner Jamie Anderson back in the 1870s, it also boasts famous golfing neighbours in Old Tom and Tommy Morris, who won eight Opens between them, and ‘The King of Clubs’ Allan Robertson.

Two doors down was the workshop of the clubmaker to the King, Robert Forgan.

The book also tells the story of the town of St Andrews, its connection with Mary, Queen of Scots, John Knox, and how golf was banned in 1457 as the King wanted his subjects to be practising archery!

‘9 The Links’ becomes my 16th golf book, stretching back to ‘One Hundred Years New’, celebrating the centenary of The New Golf Club in 2002, followed by the world’s most definitive book on Tom Morris – ‘Tom Morris of St Andrews, The Colossus of Golf 1821-1908′, written by David Malcolm & Peter Crabtree.

Written by the Club’s Archivist, Nevin McGhee, the book tells the story of Glasgow Golf Club, from its 18th century beginnings to the present day.

It tells of the tenaciousness of local businessmen to find a suitable home for the club, as well as the pains and tribulations that go with growing a club in the early days of golf in the west of Scotland.

You can read how Killermont Estate in Glasgow, home of the Campbell-Colquhoun family, became the Club’s principal home and how the Club developed a second home and course 35 miles away on Gailes Links in Ayrshire.

The great man himself, Old Tom Morris, came to Killermont in December 1903 to advise on the layout of the Killermont course. Willie Park Jnr designed the Gailes layout in 1912 and James Braid later updated both.

There have been many famous golfers and personalities who have played the two courses and many competitions have been hosted over the years at both Killermont and Glasgow Gailes.

Gailes has been an Open Championship Final Qualifying course since 1973 and has also hosted International matches, the Palmer Cup, the Home Internationals, the Scottish Amateur and PGA Championships, and the British Youths and Seniors Championships.

The book also covers, very graphically, the results of a huge fire which tore through the Clubhouse at Killermont on 20th September 2018 and what happened to the Club’s many paintings, prints, trophies and golfing memorabilia.

Nevin McGhee has written a wonderful club history and it was a pleasure and privilege working with him to produce this, my 15th golf book design.

There are two editions of the book – cloth bound and leather bound. If you wish to purchase a copy, then please contact the Club General Manager – danny.welsh@glasgowgolfclub.com

Shortly before he died in 2011, Doc handed over his finished text to me, along with dozens and dozens of untitled images and asked me if I could design and publish the book. I promised I would. However, it all took a while for me to get my head around, sort out the unnamed images, and put it all together in an order Doc would have approved. Noel Terry lives in Australia, so all liaison with him was through emails.

However, long story short, it all came to fruition in June 2022 with the printing of two editions – 300 cloth and 65 leather – 65 because Andrew Strath won the 5th Open in 1865.

The leather-bound books are co-signed by Doc’s widow, Ruth and Noel Terry. As Ruth lives in London and Noel in Melbourne, Australia, the 65 endpapers were sent to both locations to be signed, before returning to Scotland for insertion into the books.

Doc had definite ideas on how he wanted the book to look, and both he and Ruth saw and approved my initial visuals before the project got heavily underway. I hope he would have been happy with how it ended up.

The book tells the story of how Alexander Strath left his Buchan home to live and work in St Andrews, where he and his wife Mary would raise a family of golfing sons who would make their mark in a game which was fast becoming nationally popular.

One of those sons was Davie Strath, who, alongside Young Tommy Morris, would popularise the early game, with their exciting matches for larger and larger prize money.

During the research and writing of this book, Doc Malcolm and Noel Terry were responsible for locating the unmarked grave of Champion Golfer Davie Strath, who died in Melbourne in 1879, and organised a headstone to be erected in his memory.

The book is a great story of one St Andrews family, their varying golfing skills and experiences, and their influence on golf at home and abroad.

In 1879, St Andrews was thriving. The town was becoming what Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair had envisioned back in the 1830s – the Metropolis of Golf.

When the Town Council wanted to allow the owners of houses facing the golf course to build a road from Golf Place to Grannie Clark’s Wynd and beyond, one lone voice resisted – John Paterson.

He was incensed that the Council would even consider allowing a road on the ancient links. To stop them, he took the Town Council to court. The case went all the way to the House of Lords.

After three years of research, Roger, winner of the USGA’s Herbert Warren Wind Book Award and fellow winner of the British Golf Collectors Society’s Murdoch Medal, reveals the full details of the case.

The book contains many fascinating cross examinations from townspeople of the time, so we hear opinions from Old Tom Morris, Jamie Anderson and many others, in their own words, which give us a clear portrait of the evolution of St Andrews links and unravel a few mysteries along the way.

The book is filled with beautiful images throughout, many which are previously unpublished. Most have been carefully retouched to restore them to their original quality.

We produced two editions. There is the leather-bound Subscribers’ Edition, all 50 of which were pre-sold, with all subscribers’ names printed on the front endpaper.

We also printed a soft-back edition of 300, which are selling for £99 each.

Highlighted throughout the book are unique quotes that typify the opposing opinions of the local workers, residents, councillors and golfers, and reveal previous unknown gems of historical and local geographical information, like who actually built Tom Morris’ house in 1830!

The book is now the 14th golf-related book I’ve produced since 2002, when I produced the centenary book for The New Golf Club. This is the sixth book I’ve produced in partnership with Roger.

I’ll leave you with a few more glimpses of the book which, hopefully, will entice you to purchase it, either for yourself or as a Christmas present for someone special.

In my case, they acknowledged that the award was given for my contribution over a number of years towards ‘raising the bar’ of golf book design. Authors of five of my books have previously won this award for their writing. This year, the committee decided it was my turn to receive the honour, especially after the recent publication of both The StAndrews Golf Club 175th anniversary book St Andrews For Ever – A History of The St Andrews Golf Club, 1843-2018 (December 2018) and the Royal Liverpool Golf Club’s 150th anniversary book A Hoylake Celebration (May 2019).

The top photograph shows me with three authors of my books, namely (from the left) Blyth Bell, author of the Royal Liverpool GC book, Peter Crabtree, co-author of Tom Morris of St Andrews, The Colossus of Golf 1821-1908 (2005), and Roger McStravick, author of St Andrews in the Footsteps of Old Tom Morris (2016).

BGCS Past Captain David Kirkwood presented me with the Medal at the British Golf Museum on 15 August.