Book Review by Jeffrey Reed:
To the Nines
Author: Anthony Pioppi

What golfer doesn’t enjoy “getting in a quick nine?” For that matter, you would be hard pressed to find a junior golfer who didn’t start out by golfing nine holes. I know I did, at London, Ontario’s East Park Golf Gardens. The front 9 only demanded one driver from the tee at this executive-style course, but as a youngster, this course provided plenty of challenges, not to mention many memories of golfing with my father.

While East Park is an 18-hole course, there is a unique aura surrounding the true nine-hole golf course. Author Anthony Pioppi has written a winner with his first book, To the Nines. Fourteen U.S.-based courses stretching from Maine to California are featured in this 143-page book. There are wonderful historical references and photographs, all bringing these 9-hole tracks to life.

There shouldn’t be a negative stigma surrounding 9-hole golf courses. While most golfers publically belittle the little brother to the 18-hole course, almost everyone enjoys a quick nine at a quality 9-hole track. The Bluffs of Port Stanley Golf Club in Port Stanley, Ontario is one of my favourite area courses, offering the prettiest scenes in all of London and area. 

Following thousands of miles of travel, Pioppi tells the tales of 14 U.S.-based 9-hole courses. PGA Tour competitor Brad Faxon writes in the forward of To the Nines, “... you will not only feel the shots, the holes, and the courses Anthony describes, but you will get caught up in their unique and intriguing stories, all the while trying to figure out how you are going to get in your next nine holes.”

Faxon is dead-on with his remark. To the Nines chronicles courses like the long-forgotten Ocean Links of Rhode Island – arguably the best 9-hole golf course ever built. The Donald Ross-designed Whitinsville in Massachusetts draws much applause from Pioppi. In fact, as Pioppi notes, while modern-day architects rarely build 9-hole tracks (although many open as nine holes before a full 18-hole debut), nearly every legendary architect of golf’s Golden Age – Ross, MacKenzie, Maxwell and MacDonald, just to name a few – all have designed wonderful 9-hole layouts.

Pioppi’s chapter on the Connecticut-based Fenwick golf course is of particular interest. Billed as “Katherine Hepburn’s Playground,” Fenwick dates back to the 1890s. Just before a hurricane destroyed the Hepburn family home in 1938, the movie star aced the course’s 9th hole and shot even par. Hepburn’s partner, Howard Hughes – no slouch on the links – often played at Fenwick. But it was Hepburn who won her first trophy here in 1923 at age 16: the Approaching and Putting contest. In fact, 18 years later, in 1942, she claimed the same prize. Following WW II, the annual contest resumed and, you guessed it, Hepburn reclaimed the title.

With To the Nines, Pioppi proves good things do come in small packages. This is a solidly-researched book which obviously stems from Pioppi’s love of the game. In fact, in 1998 the author temporarily left his writing career and worked on golf course grounds crews in Florida and Connecticut. Now that’s research. The Middletown, Connecticut resident still enjoys golf course maintenance, and has volunteered in this role at the Old Course for the 2000 and 2005 Open Championships, both claimed by Tiger Woods.

To the Nines may not chronicle 7,500-yard monster golf courses, but it does recount the history of some of the most beloved courses in America. Hats off to Pioppi for remembering the little guy. 

To the Nines
by Anthony Pioppi
Sports Media Group
ISBN-13: 978-1-58726-274-6
ISBN-10: 1-58726-274-6
$22.95 US