As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t read golf books or magazines to improve my mechanics. I find that most are simply repeats of the same information, presented in a different fashion. And sometimes the advice is simply bad. Learning from a book is often the best way to gain an insight into the skills required for some activity, but the golf swing requires a second set of eyes to see what is going on. Even when you feel like you’re “in the groove”, your senses are very deceiving.
With my iron play being what it has been of late, I’ve been thinking of going back to all irons in my bag for a few weeks like I did last summer. Then, I was hitting my 1-iron farther than my playing partners were hitting drivers, and all my iron shots were crisp.
I also think I’ll go back and do some reading on the two books that have actually helped me in the past:
The Nicklaus book is very well done, and written when Jack was at the top of his game. It is simple, and has beautiful illustrations. My game has always improved after I’ve gone through his lessons because my swing thoughts settle down and I play smarter golf. Nothing more exotic than that. No drills. Just good advice.
The second appeals to my analytical side. It is, to my knowledge, the only book on the golf swing based on solid research. For any beginner, this book is the perfect gift. And for old duffers like me, it brings the basics into focus with simple explanations about what is actually happening during those two short seconds of the swing. While this book is great for any beginner, the Nicklaus book would be more appealing to the youth golfer because of the artistic presentation. of course, they’ll get some laughs when they see 1970s golf attire. Well, so will some adults who actually wore stuff like that!
After mentioning the analytical side of the golf game, I have to point out two heavily researched books on the scoring part of the game:
Dave Pelz spent years charting shots by PGA tours, and has worked with some of the best on tour to improve their short games. Lee Janzen, Payne Stewart, and Phil Mickelson are just three who benefitted from his advice. Dave presents statistical evidence of where good scores come from, and how best to take advantage of that information.
That’s where I’ve lost a lot of strokes, and balls, lately.
Golf books are the only way to go. In fact, in my golf book I always shoot a few shots shy of par! I’m a really good book golfer.
Actually the only book I’ve ever purchased on the subject was the aptly titled…”Golf for Dummies”. Not a bad book.
Comment by Wallace-Midland Texas — March 22, 2005 @ 2:30 pm
I’m thinking of writing The Stupid Golfer, my autobiography!
Comment by Bunker — March 22, 2005 @ 5:31 pm
When are you going to be done with those books, so I can have them?
Comment by Birdie — March 23, 2005 @ 5:13 pm
Bogey has one, and the others are ones I’ll hang onto. What would you do with them in Afghanistan, anyway?
Comment by Bunker — March 23, 2005 @ 5:50 pm
Read them of course.
Comment by Birdie — March 24, 2005 @ 2:19 pm