Great clubs have a history worth remembering.
But even the greatest stories can fall flat if not told well. Your club’s history deserves more than a run-of-the-mill record of highlights seasoned with memories. That's the path to a high school yearbook destined to gather dust.
At Strawn & Sampson, we pride ourselves on unearthing and championing your club's unique and compelling narrative. Our extensive experience as golf writers and historians allows us to dig deeper, think harder, and provide an engaging narrative rather than a simple registry of facts. Even if the club is only 25 or 50 years old, isn't it worth the effort to engage the highest level of craft to tell its story in the most accurate and compelling way?
Entertaining, enlightening and devoid of cliché, our books are read, re-read, talked about and savored.
01.
Methods
Every Strawn & Sampson project employs two modes of research: archival work, which includes an examination of the planning and design phases of a course's creation, and oral histories, which are long, focused interviews with the principal players in the creation of a recent course or, in the case of a private club, long-term members and employees. We will examine land acquisition, business strategy, and club formation.
We will explore master planning, conceptual design and construction. And, of course, we will narrate the great competitive events in any club's history with appropriate context and drama.
02.
Images
Photos and graphic content are crucial elements of our books. We will access a club's photo archives, including snapshots taken during construction if possible—the more "before and after" images, the better. We will write the captions for any photos used, integrating them into the narrative. For example, the images used in Creating Calusa Pines all advance the story and don't simply show a pretty picture of a golf hole.
03.
Product
We will research, write, design, and print books printed in full color with a hardbound cloth cover and a dust jacket. The text can be up to 40,000 words. Because text and images will be integrated into an overall design rather than gathered in a portfolio of images bound into the text, a Strawn & Sampson book will not look like a typical coffee table golf book. We will create a cohesive, thematically unified product.
Curt Sampson
Curt Sampson developed his page-turning writing style through hard work and practice, using the same methods he had used to hone his competitive golf game. A former club and touring professional, Curt has published over a million words in hundreds of magazine articles and twenty-three books. Four of Sampson’s titles have reached the New York Times bestseller list.
“Discovering themes and uncovering context requires a lot of work and thought,” says Sampson. “But those are the keys to a good story. And what makes a good book is the blend of the story with the design—photos, maps, and other graphics.”
John Strawn
John has a unique background as a college history professor, golf course architect, and author. He penned the first book on the construction of a golf course, "Driving the Green," famous in golf architecture circles. As the former CEO of Robert Trent Jones II Inc., John has unparalleled insight into golf course architecture.
Curt joined forces with John Strawn in 2020.
John believes we often read bland descriptions of holes and courses—"430-yard dogleg left, with a pond protecting a small green." But why a dogleg, why this pond? What is the designer trying to convey? What are the challenges of construction and maintenance? This is the type of expertise and insight John can provide.
No one is better at preserving club histories than John and Curt. The reason is their passion for golf, penchant for detail, and thrill of discovery of lost facts and personalities. Just read any of the books that they have written to convince yourself that these are the guys you want to write your history.
