Links guide fits you to a tee

This week's snowfall provided ample evidence that the golf season is still a way off. But not for John DiCocco and Mark Williams, copublishers of the 2006 edition of the New England Golf Guide. For these two enthusiasts, the season never ends.

DiCocco, 57, and Williams, 42, jointly purchased the publication rights to the guide last June under the name BallMarker Press LLC. Acquiring the rights from retired publishers Leona Curhan and Irwin Garfinkle, who bought the guide in 1991 and remain on the masthead as consultants, the Belmont-based duo now is looking to expand the book into the ultimate resource for the average New England player.

''We want to ensure timely, accurate, useful information for the average golfer," said Williams, a professor of finance at Boston University's School of Management. ''The average price for a round of golf at a public course is $55. How do you ensure the best experience for your money? If you are going out to dinner and you want to ensure the best possible dining experience, you grab the Zagat guide. We'd like to help make sure that the golfer made the right decision."

DiCocco's and Williams's ascension to their current roles began well before the purchase last June. DiCocco, publications director at the School of Management for the past 13 years, became editor of the New England Guide in 1991, thanks to his involvement with the Tour of Greater Boston, an informal club of amateur golfers, which he founded the same year.

''I told [Leona and Irwin] all the way back then that I wanted to buy when they were ready to sell," said DiCocco. ''I told Mark of the conversation about three years ago, and he said that he wanted in. I wound up selling out my partnership with the Tour, and we got started on the purchase."

As copublishers, DiCocco and Williams were able to make some changes in the book from previous editions.

There are 655 courses listed in the 2006 edition, divided into 10 chapters covering all of New England. The directory, which sells for $19.95, has been revised to make it easier to find courses. The rating system has been expanded to five stars from the four stars used in previous years (only one course, the Nicklaus course at Pine Hills in Plymouth, achieves the perfect five-star score) with half-stars included this year as well.

For courses that earn between three and five stars, Williams also has designed a formula to assign value ratings. A course with a value rating of exceptional would be a course with a high rating that is also the best bargain, or, as DiCocco put it, ''the higher the star rating and the lower the cost, the better the value rating is."

''I wanted to create a model that measured quantitative attributes with qualitative ones," said Williams, who once worked for the Federal Reserve, dealing with credit and loans. ''An example of quantitative attributes would be something like course layout or condition, while qualitative attributes would cover anything from comments from someone who played a particular course to how memorable a certain hole is."

BallMarker is a privately held company, and the two men declined to say how much they paid to acquire it, or to provide specific sales figures. With peak sales expected between now and the end of the 2006 golf season, it's too early to tell what BallMarker's first-year revenue will be. But they said that early indications show the new version of the guide is on the way to being a swinging success.

Since the guide debuted in early November, sales at Barnes & Noble stores have increased by 30 percent from the previous year. In addition, Modell's Sporting Goods, City Sports, and Golfers' Warehouse are selling the guide for the first time, with Modell's selling out its entire inventory before Christmas. Last week, the Hudson Group decided to carry the guide in the many Hudson News airport stores throughout New England. These developments, Williams said, are ''the equivalent of winning Oprah's" book recognition.

''It was a good buy and we will make it a better one," he said.

As in the past, there are not many ads in the 2006 guide, though there are coupons available for many of the listed courses. This edition also contains more feature writing, including a tour of five mountain courses in Vermont, written by DiCocco; a summary of several top-flight courses in Maine; and a review of RadarGolf's Ball Positioning System golf ball locator, written by Williams.

There will also be a chance for readers to get more involved thanks to a hole design contest in which entrants get a chance to create their own dream par 4.

''It's all in an effort to build a community for New England golfers," said DiCocco. ''That may be highfalutin or it may be nuts, but to be able to have golfers all communicating with each other, that's exactly what we want."

DiCocco and Williams acknowledge it is a business they hope will not only grow, but grow handsomely. But their love of the sport seems to drive them more than financial gain.

Both men, who say they have handicaps of about 22, pointed out goals that go beyond money.

''I'm just a golf guy that owns a golf book, not a golf god that looks down on the average golfer," said Williams, who said he plays golf into the winter and starts again in the early spring.

''For me, it's a case of 'How do you build a better mousetrap?' " he said. ''We provide the information to help golfers through the hundreds and hundreds of options in New England in order to find the top 10 percent, and they'll come back. It is a business, but it's about the book and the people who use it. We also want to educate and have some fun while we're doing it."