What should be my next read (book)?

[CarlSpackler]

Lots of good reads here - don't forget "Harvey Penick's Little Red Book". Just a bunch of good, common sense golf knowledge. Happy reading!

I've read that one at least 5 times.

[phil.smith]

I have a broad library of over 150 books. A range of instruction books including - Harvey Penick, Hogan's 5 Fundamentals, Jack's "Golf My Way", Norman's version of the same book, Tigers version, Steve Elikington's "Five Fundamentals", Pelz's Putting and Short Game Bible, Faldo's "A Swing for Life", Ernie Els "How to Build a Classic Golf Swing", Stan Utley's "Art of Putting' & "Art of Short Game" and the wisdom of Hank Haney, Butch Harmon and Jim McLean (I draw the line at Leadbetter).

I have read them all.

But I have to say the ones that provide the greatest insights into golf and golfers are the books written by John Feinstein - such as A Good Walk Spoiled, The Open, The Majors, Caddy for Life, Tales from Q School - and a range of other authors like Dan Jenkins.

Stories/factual accounts of the challenge, individual stories and stress of Q-School and tournament life provide an insight into the way these guys prepare, how they review and plan rounds, their equipment.

Amazing insights.

Add Gary McCord's "Just a Range Ball in a box of Titleists" and Peter Jacobsen's "Embedded Balls" and Bill Murray's "Cinderella Story" for the light hearted side of golf.

Just reading instruction mags and instruction books is half the story. The game is a great story in and of itself.

[shortgamewiz]

I think learning golf from a book sucks, but we all do it.

I learned mostly from going to tournaments and watching good players hit balls. After that I think that videos are better than books. But admittedly books can be fun and interesting. I read most of Jones' stuff most often, and Nicklaus' when I was younger. My first book was Tommy Armour's. I read Harvey Pennick, Leadbetter. I liked "Tour Tempo".. after reading it and using the technique I eagled my first par 5. It's hard to tell which book helped me the most.. I guess I got some stuff from all of them. Recently I was determined to learn Utley's technique. It took a long time and I really needed to scour the web for his videos in order for the books to make any sense. I think I'm finally starting to get it now.

My favorite all time golf books are:
"6 days to better golf" by Farley and Oblitz .. the foot together drill, the brush drill and the other foot related drills are the best. I once showed the foot together thing to this big hulking monster of a guy who was a little bit of a schmuck, but I was teamed up him with in an outing and he couldn't get the ball off the ground, at all and it was getting annoying. So, after he got desperate enough to try anything, I told him to put his feet together, and suddenly he was hitting it clean, straight shots and actually even putting it on greens from the fairway! You should have seen the look on his face! It was like he saw a ghost -- for the rest of the round!

"Better golf without practice" by Morrison (Jack Grout's teacher); this book is fabulous and entertaining. The main drill I love is the toes lifting one and the foot rolling one; I guess I love drills.

"55 ways" by Nicklaus' -- the flat footed drill is also a favorite of mine.

Utley's books -- I've been obsessing on them now for quite some time

[CarlSpackler]

Try 'Dream On' by John Richardson. It's not about technique - it's about a guy who decided he was going to break par inside a year... from a 33 handicap... and how he did it (including what books he read). If nothing else you will find it inspiring.

I would love to visit the home of my ancestors, well at least half of them.