A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: Firpo’s Golf Guide to California’s Central Coast.

Price: $11.95, distributed through Sunbelt Publications and Bookpeople.

This 100-page guide dissects every public-access golf course in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Each course, from nine-hole par-three tracks for beginners to resort layouts, is given essentially the same treatment, so you’ll get a pretty good idea of what awaits you at any of them.

All the nuts-and-bolts information usually associated with such a publication is there (green fees, address and phone number, tee-time availability and policy), but this booklet is much more comprehensive than most. It includes maps of the two counties with locations of each course, detailed descriptions of the courses--including scorecards and photographs--and lists of accommodations in each area.

And each course description--broken down into general comments about the facility and its history, followed by detailed remarks on each nine--is pretty frank. Eric Firpo, the author, tells the reader about courses that aren’t as well maintained as they might be or courses that are so geared toward beginners that slow play is the rule rather than the exception.

Many such compilations fail to relay the kind of information a golfer really wants, once he or she has figured out the price, which is “Do I want to play there?” Firpo has done that here. It’s a helpful guide.

If you can’t locate copies at bookstores, the author can be reached at (805) 489-3039 or via e-mail at etfirpo@aol.com.