Hogan's Five Lessons - Most Overrated Book of All Time

Go ahead, name another book that's more over-rated in the golf instruction space. I dare you. I double dare you, and so does Marc Summers.

No other book on the market did more to make people slice the ball and hit the ball like garbage. People don't realize that this was a book entirely about how Hogan thought he played golf. Not only are some parts completely inaccurate (feel not real), but other parts are designed solely to hit a fade and cure hooks, which aren't really problems the average golfer has.

On one hand I should be grateful. That one book alone probably accounts for 60% of my business. Leadbetter's crap is a good chunk of the other 40%.

i just bought the book.  i didnt vote because i am just past the grip section.  i didnt really buy it to incorperate anything into my swing... it just seems like one of those books you have to read if your a golfer.  i think im gonna get the penick book next.

There are other candidates but there's only one "Five Lessons". One famous author/instructor was quoted as saying that book kept him in business.

Maybe it should be called "Five Lessons to play golf like Ben Hogan thinks he does, but don't try this at home because you're not Ben Hogan".

It's probably one of the most famous (if not the most famous) books about the golf swing in the world, so that right there makes it a candidate.

It is better to watch Hogan than to read Hogan ...

Pure baloney IMO.

When I first started playing, Hogan's book got me to the point where I would hit a straight ball or a slight fade. Some very minor changes got me to hit the draw that I prefer.

Hogan's  Book .........WINNING........

Some books are popular because they are written by famous authors.  Some books are popular because they are informative and educational.  Five Lessons is both.  There is not a better book written on the golf swing.  Sorry Mac.

Overrated book, in my opinion:  Penick's "Little Red Book".  But maybe I would like it better now that I'm a little more experienced.

If i was using your logic my winner would be The Stack and Tilt Swing: The Definitive Guide to the Swing That Is Remaking Golf.
I personally think Hogans book is the greatest golf book ever written, i bought the book to know more about the man not how to play golf

Ding Ding Ding - and its bastard cousin, the Little Green Book.

Its maybe not the best but its up there in my opinion
"Ernest Jones' Swing the Clubhead"

so are the penick books worth buying or no?

As someone who is new to the game, I was looking to pick up this book.  Would you guys say that it's not worth it and that I'll either not get much out of the book or maybe start to develop bad habits?

The book is good. It has become the hip thing to rag on it and talk about how dumb it is. An old instructor was interviewed in Golf Digest last month (or maybe it was two months ago) and he said that that book kept him in business. The original poster in this thread is just copying that. Is Hogan's book the end-all authority? No, but it's a good book. It's helped many people.

Check out the discussion of "Five Lessons" in the Reading Room section.  Lots more information there.  Personally, it would be the first golf book I would read, before any others.

Nice stories and perhaps some that help with the mind or an approach to the game, but if you're looking for technical golf answers .... no ... no

The "old instructor" wrote a book 40+ years ago that introduced a method to develop a powerful and repeatable swing and an understanding of why the ball goes where it does (and how to control the ball's flight path rather than trying to manage your way around a course with a ball flight that doesn't make sense).

If "Five Lessons" gets a person to a point where they can generate a decent amount of power while being able to work the ball both ways, they should hold that book in high regard. If that book does that for you, then fill your boots.