Good Golf Books

[PhilsRHman]

The Rick Reilly books set at "Ponky" ("Missing Links" and "Shanks For Nothing") are hysterical. Not only is he a great writer, but he really captures the kind of humor only someone who spends years of their life at a golf course can appreciate. Not just funny, we're talking put the book down because you're laughing so hard you can't keep reading without wiping your tears away funny.

Also, while not fiction, Reilly's "Who's your Caddy" was fantastic. Anyone who can read that and still look at "Long" John Daly that same way is a stronger man than me.

I've read the Little Red Book about 10 times, now I use it more as a reference than anything else. When giving friends tips I catch myself quoting it directly. The rest of the "Little" books are great for anecdotes and getting in the golf mood. Hell, I even read the one for seniors and ladies.

A few years after teaching myself the game by reading the Little Red Book, I fell in love again with Bob Rotella's books and his "keep it simple" mentality. Guess that explains why I'm so turned off by some of the technical mumbo jumbo on Golf Channel.

Have found Feinstein's books incredibly hard to get through, despite having very high expectations. Especially The Majors (pretty sure that was the name of it), it just read like a very very very very long game story you'd read in the next day's paper. At least it was for as deep as I could read into it.

Looking forward to the book about dropping everything and trying for Q School. Had never heard of it until tonight, and sounds like the perfect reading to get me juiced for my Sept. golf trip!

Any other new stuff out there? I'm a huge fan of golf fiction. There are some classics I've never gotten around to (never read Jenkins, and Golf in the Kingdom lost me by page 20, although I was 15 or so when I tried reading it, so maybe it's time for another stab at it). Anything I NEED to get my hands on? I'm all ears.

[Leek]

The Rick Reilly books set at "Ponky" ("Missing Links" and "Shanks For Nothing") are hysterical. Not only is he a great writer, but he really captures the kind of humor only someone who spends years of their life at a golf course can appreciate. Not just funny, we're talking put the book down because you're laughing so hard you can't keep reading without wiping your tears away funny.

I just finished reading Q School. Great book!

[BluesMan]

Somewhere in Ireland a Village is missing an Idiot - David Fehrety!

[pete6]

My father-in-law swears by the David Peltz books, but I have not gotten around to picking one up. Has anyone else read Daivd Peltz?

[Arsenal Forever]

Hello. I enjoy a good read and I'm looking for a new one to read while at work and bored at school.

It can be anything-Golf instruction (I'm about a 20 handicap with problems with consistency, good putting and a good repeatable swing), mental game, stories, or biographies.

I would just like it to be good, and not too long. Availability is good as well.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Shindig]

Hello. I enjoy a good read and I'm looking for a new one to read while at work and bored at school.

There are tons of threads like this; maybe we need a FAQ-type entry with which books are the favorites of different folks on the forums.

There's no shortage of people who will suggest Dr. Bob Rotella's books. I suggest starting with Golf is not a Game of Perfect . It's easy to find too. It focuses on the mental game, and I've read it twice and I plan to re-read it every 2-3 months. I seriously credit it with a 4-stroke drop in my handicap. Just the attitude he discusses on putting alone was worth the purchase price. I really enjoyed Butch Harmon's 4 Cornerstones of Winning Golf , but I don't like learning swings out of books, so I can't vouch for that part's effectiveness. The mental game, course management, and fitness pieces are stellar. The latter got me started in golf-specific exercise, and it's helped me immensely -- I can't quote a distance, but any real fitness wasn't something I was interested in before reading this book. I'm a natural computer nerd, not a natural athlete, but I'm becoming far more athletic. I also suggested Arnold Palmer's Playing by the Rules , just for rules information and good trivia about various calls made. Gary McCord wrote Just a Range Ball in a box of Titleists , and it was entertaining. John Daly's Life in and out of the rough was amusing, and I even liked Johnny Miller's I Call the Shots , although the former two were far more entertaining reads. There's a series by Don Wade of the form And then X told Y , for various values of X and Y. These are especially good if you're waiting between classes. Playboy has a Fore Play mini-book, but I don't suggest this for school.

[Arsenal Forever]

Haha, I've heard of the Fore Play book before.

And I never saw another thread...I guess I didn't look hard enough, Thanks for the suggestions so far.

[Shindig]

Haha, I've heard of the Fore Play book before.

I'm just pretty sure I answered the question before; I don't know where the other thread is. It doesn't bug me to answer questions multiple times, as long as it's on a topic I enjoy talking about. Like golf

[edk]

Its not about golf instructions but JD's autobiography is easy reading and hard to put down.

[keb]

I second recommendation on Golf is Not A Game of Perfect. As far as swing and instruction, the book which I found the most helpful because of it being simple and straightforward is Hogans, Five Fundaments. It is available in paperpack and relatively cheap. I recently read the novel, The Caddy Who Knew Ben Hogan, and also Feintein's Q School and really enjoyed both.

[spyderwerks]

It's nothing to do with instruction, but I found it to be an absolutely fabulous read. I usually find little time to actually sit and do any good reading, but this one was hard to put down.

Mising Links, by Rick Reilly.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...85488860&itm;=1

[countjyro]

I highly recomment "Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf." I know it was already listed, but I wanted to mention how much it helped me. It made my swing a lot more repeatable (but I still am a terrible golfer). Whenever I start doing worse than usual, I just think back to these lessons and it helps me a lot.

I found it to be entertaining as well, and loved the pictures that accompanied the information.

Hope this helps.

Also, on some site ( www.Men.style.com I believe), they had a top 3 golfer must reads. I have not read them but here they are.

Golf In the Kingdom: Michael Murphy
The Rules of Golf in Plain English: Jeffery S. Huhn and Bryan A. Garner
Hervey Penick's Little Red Book: Harvey Penick

[beach_golfer]

Some decent reading golf books are by Rick Reilly (The S.I. columnist) He has a few, Who's your caddy?, Shanks for nothing..etc. Decent quick reads with some good chuckles. Check them out.

[JumpHigh_HitHard]

Some decent reading golf books are by Rick Reilly (The S.I. columnist) He has a few, Who's your caddy?, Shanks for nothing..etc. Decent quick reads with some good chuckles. Check them out.

"Who's your caddy" is my favorite (non-instructional) golf book. Funny, insightful, and a great read.

As for instructional: you can never go wrong with Hogan's 5 lessons.

[cubfanbob]

My favorite would have to be Tommy Armour's "How To Play Your Best Golf All The Time".

[geezer]

Tiger Woods, How I play Golf.
Deals with pretty much every aspect of the game. Mental, mechanical and feel. With tips for putting, driving, long irons, chipping, and even strength and flexability exercises.
It is quite old though, early 2000's, some of the pictures even show Tiger hitting Titleist balls and with Titleist clubs etc. But then at the end of the book he's using all nike.

[sid77]

"The Greatest Game Ever Played" written by Mark Frost. He talks about the early origins of the game in the UK and USA. I bought this whilst holidaying in Florida last week and I couldn't put it down. A truly fantastic read, highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Game-.../dp/0786869208

[Paladin]

If the "inside the ropes" kind of stuff is of interest to anyone there is one book that I read this summer (and later found his blog) by Chris Lewis. He wrote a book that is so inside I wondered how he did it (?) and how he could go back and face some of these individuals after the release of the book. It shows a different side of a dozen or so top players. I mean really different. I enjoyed reading this book.

The Scorecard Always Lies - by Chris Lewis.

On the same theme but gentler - all the John Feinstein golf books starting with the first, A Good Walked Spoiled. His current book Tales From Q School is a great read! Puts our own golf in clear perspective (at least mine). Maybe my favorite is Open. This guy is a good writer period. His basketball books are among the classics and Season on the Brink might be the best college basketball book of this era.

Fearless Golf by Dr. Gio Valiante (the guy you see on the Golf Channel a lot) is better than the Rotella books as far as I'm concerned and I own them all. Valiante offers more relevent advice and drills vs Rotella good advice. Valiante is more actionable on the golf course.

Leone Rubinstein's, A Season at Dornoch made me want to buy a plane ticket. Just haven't gotten around to it get. I love that little book!

Paladin