What is the BEST Golf Instructional Book Ever?

[GolfLug]

So many great books. I don't read whole books much anymore. Mostly I feel what I have retained from each book can be distilled in a few words.

For full swing:

Novosel's tour tempo - 3:1 BS to DS ratio.

Bobby Clampett: attention 4 inch ahead of the ball ( @iacas mentioned something similar in a previous post here somewhere)

Stan Utley: Natural rotation of body and club for putting and chipping.

5SK: I know not a 'book' but - Key #1 Steady Head and #2 Weight Forward

For overall golf instruction including understanding scoring:

LSW: Separation values and Shot zones are my favorite sections. Favorite phrase - 'Golf is hard' helps me with perspective on difficult days.

Ray Floyd: It was a good read few years ago. The only thing I remember properly - Better to hit thin than fat (also in LSW!)

Few other I can mention but nothing outside of what has been covered in the previous posts.

[Mr. Desmond]

I've read many over the last 20 years ...

LSW is enlightening

Art of the Short Game by Utley is useful to me.

I am reading "Traits of Champion Golfers" by Graham and Stabler -- about the mental side of the game and psychological profiles of champion golfers. It is a 1999 book, and has references to the prior generation, but I find all of it content applicable to today's game.

For playing golf swing, I found no book really helps -- real and online lessons/video, youtube are helpful to me.

[Zeph]

There's a book? I thought it was just DVDs.

Sorry, I meant LSW. But I should note that 5SK is a very good addition to the book, which doesn't go that deep into the swing

[Sticker]

Read a few over the years (Not as many as my should have--- as my game will attest to).  My all time favorite "Golf My Way. Jack Nicholas."

[Phil McGleno]

I am an avid reader of golf books. My library is full of them.

No room in it for the book the site owner wrote though? [quote name="Patch" url="/t/65766/what-is-the-best-golf-instructional-book-ever/36#post_1190248"]I'd say most of the good ones are shared advice from accomplished golfers, in easy to understand verbiage.[/quote] You just described it. Well, part of it-There is a lot more to it than you seem to know. And hey I do not want to give a stump speech for LSW but I find it odd that you would say these things AND be a member here but not own it. [quote name="Patch" url="/t/65766/what-is-the-best-golf-instructional-book-ever/36#post_1190248"]I'd say read as much as you can from as many different sources, and use only the info from those various books, that pertains to your own swing situation. Try different things, and if they work, fine. If not, then you still learned something about your swing.[/quote] Do not just "try" different things. You will not do them properly, and you will just keep hunting and searching for the next thing to "try."-Find what makes sense from people you trust and work hard at it.

[mvmac]

Do not just "try" different things. You will not do them properly, and you will just keep hunting and searching for the next thing to "try."-Find what makes sense from people you trust and work hard at it.

+1

[Patch]

I dug out an old book I have had for quite a few years. Probably 10 years I am thinking. It's not cure all for for a better game, but it does test the golfer who uses it, and has a few good tidbits in it. . It's titled "Golf's Red Zone Challenge" and is put out by Athlon Sports. David Tom's endorsed it, and wrote a "foreword" for it. The authors are Charlie King, and Rob Adams whom ever they were/are. It has lots of pictures with decent explanations. If it were me, I'd ask your library to order it for you to check before buying.

[Rich1212]

There is no book useful to learn a swing or to play golf. A book can not tell you what your doing wrong.  A book will tell you to turn your hips, it cant tell you if your doing it right or the timing is good. Unless your a natural, it can only be done by a professional watching you and correcting faults.

Remember, to change a swing and make it automatic takes 18 months to 2 years to get the muscle memory to make it repeatable every time.

[nevets88]

There is no book useful to learn a swing or to play golf. A book can not tell you what your doing wrong.  A book will tell you to turn your hips, it cant tell you if your doing it right or the timing is good. Unless your a natural, it can only be done by a professional watching you and correcting faults.

Remember, to change a swing and make it automatic takes 18 months to 2 years to get the muscle memory to make it repeatable every time.

I agree w/some of this sentiment. But before high speed video and 3D and radar, people just had books and photos and limited film clips. Some got better. My take on this is books did help a small percentage of people. Then video, a bit more. The latest technology, even more, maybe exponentially? I think it really helps the better players and those w/athletic ability. But books, imho, are overrated, and their effectiveness in helping one improve not commensurate w/the veneration foisted on them by many golfers.

[Patch]

Not sure I totally agree with there are no good books that can tell the golfer what they are doing wrong. There are plenty of books out there that can tell the golfer what they are doing wrong, and how to identify, and fix a swing problem. The "Nine Bad Shots Of Golf" readily comes to mind. Yeah, I know. It's old, and antiquated, but it does have useful information in it.

As for not telling the golfer if their timing is not right, or their swing is not right, the golfer already has this information. It's in the form of their ball flight.  A golfer's ball flight tells them everything they need to know about their golf swing. Good, and/or bad. All the golfer needs to do, is to do some research, (homework) to understand different ball flights, and what might be the cause of a bad ball flight. An example might be If the golfer has a slicing ball flight, there are probably 10, or 12 reasons they are slicing. If a golfer does some research, and learns about those 10-12 reasons, they will know what to look for when they do start to slice the ball again.  There is nothing in the rules that says a golfer can't understand their own swing.

No, 99% of the books on golf has at least some little tid bit that can help the golfer. Some have more than others. I will say this, that not every book will fit every golfer's mental ability to understand what is written in them. That is why there is no "best book" out there.

[Kujan]

[quote name] the golfer already has this information. It's in the form of their ball flight.  A golfer's ball flight tells them everything they need to know about their golf swing. Good, and/or bad. All the golfer needs to do, is to do some research, (homework) to understand different ball flights, and what might be the cause of a bad ball flight. [/quote] This is well said and it's true.

[nevets88]

Quote:

Originally Posted by name

the golfer already has this information. It's in the form of their ball flight.  A golfer's ball flight tells them everything they need to know about their golf swing. Good, and/or bad. All the golfer needs to do, is to do some research, (homework) to understand different ball flights, and what might be the cause of a bad ball flight.

This is well said and it's true.

Imho, one still has to figure out how to swing in to out rather than out to in or whatever is the most important fix. Ball flight won't tell you how to do that.

Also, taking into effect off center hits, different types of range balls, not as simple reading ball flight as one thinks. I wonder what instructors think about their students' general ball flight reading skills, because I'm thinking it's not as good as what people think they are.

To add to my previous point, existing written and spoken language is a terrible medium for relaying feels and moves. A lot of ambiguity.

[pumaAttack]

I have read my share of golf books and none of them helped as much as an actual instructor...

If you want to improve your golf swing, get a lesson not a book.

I think books are good for strategy but not swing advice.

[martinbr]

Ernest Jones, Swing The Clubhead

[RussUK]

For me its the Timeless Swing by Tom Watson. I think its just a well thought out book with easy to understand explanations. I like that he doesnt lay it on too thick with all the golfing jargon and uses terminology that Joe average can understand. Well illustrated too,

I think, however, the Best instructional book ever is such a subjective thing, many people will say Hogans 5 lessons, some will say its that relativley unknown book Lowest Score Wins . .

The best book ever will simply be the one that helps that particular individual the most and i think they can be more effective when used alongside lessons (providing the book matches the patter you are being taught)

[jcjim]

I think golfers just think it's status quo to say Five Lessons is THE instruction book.  Don't get me wrong, I like it and skim through it every once in a while but it's very much his version of how HE plays golf and what it feels like to him.

Sorry it's obvious you really don.t know about Hogans book because he says not to swing like him.. His book  is about the principals of the swing...For all the negatives you write about Hogan it's evident that all you want to do is trash him...good luck with that because who are you.....

[mvmac]

It's in the form of their ball flight.  A golfer's ball flight tells them everything they need to know about their golf swing. Good, and/or bad. All the golfer needs to do, is to do some research, (homework) to understand different ball flights, and what might be the cause of a bad ball flight.

I don't agree with this. A golfer can hit a low hook and it can be produced by a golfer that plays the ball too far back and stays closed too long or a player with a standard ball position that swings across their body and moves their head forward. The ball flight doesn't tell you HOW to fix or what's really going on. The ball flight itself can lie, it doesn't tell you whether the path was too far out or if you just toed it. And rather than try to guess whether you do 10-12 things wrong, it's more productive to learn what you're doing wrong and what your priority is. [quote name="jcjim" url="/t/65766/what-is-the-best-golf-instructional-book-ever/60#post_1200049"] Sorry it's obvious you really don.t know about Hogans book because he says not to swing like him.. His book  is about the principals of the swing...For all the negatives you write about Hogan it's evident that all you want to do is trash him...good luck with that because who are you..... [/quote] LOL, " all the negatives". I didn't say anything negative, just said the book is based more on what he felt and not what he actually did. There are many great golfers that don't swing exactly like Hogan so he didn't really write the "principles of the golf swing".

[TheDIYGolfer]

Don't want to hijack the thread, but what about the best book for the short game, specifically putting?

The Mental Art of Putting by Patrick Cohn

If the title didn’t give it away, this book helps anyone looking to improve their putting game between the ears.  I admit, I haven’t read the book all the way through, but that might just be the beauty of it!  The Mental Art of Putting is a great reference book, because the table of contents is so detailed.  Almost every page of the book has a title, which makes navigating the book extremely easy.  I love chapter 13 because it lists out the most common putting problems, and then offers a direct solution to each problem.  Also, chapter 1 is great because it allows you to get to know yourself on the greens.  Do you die the ball at the hole like Nicklaus?  Or charge it by like Arnold Palmer?  It is important to be aware of this, yet most golfers couldn’t put a label on themselves.

If you want to fall in love with putting again and make putts every time you step on the course, this book is a great way to do that.  The authors Cohn and Winters are both highly intelligent people who have researched the human brain on the highest of levels.