Re: Which books have helped you out?
 

I would be very careful with Hogan's five fundamentals. It really should have been entitled: "How not to hit a hook." Although Hogan was arguably the best ball striker ever, I do not believe that average golfers should try to emulate his swing since so many of his positions and motions are based on trying to prevent a hook - a problem the average golfer would love to have. I think that if you consistently slice the ball, I would read other books.

Re: Which books have helped you out?
 

And don't forget that our understanding of human kinetics AND improvements in equipment make a lot of how the super old school guys played the game nearly irrelevant. I think it'd be a pretty safe bet that had Hogan lived now, there's no way he'd swing like he did.

Re: Which books have helped you out?
 

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And don't forget that our understanding of human kinetics AND improvements in equipment make a lot of how the super old school guys played the game nearly irrelevant. I think it'd be a pretty safe bet that had Hogan lived now, there's no way he'd swing like he did.

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That is such BS. Hogan knew more about how to hit a golf ball than anyone ever has /story.

Re: Which books have helped you out?
 

JWG and black knight,

My first two trips to various courses since reading the book have been good. I have made some nice drives, and I felt I knew why I did them - because I followed the grip and stance outlined by Hogan. The other two chapters, on backswing and downswing, I read but did not do all of the practice exercises. It seemed I "naturally" swung the way he described anyways, and I now had the right set up to go with it.

I can't believe how unimportant I thought stance was before I read this book. Now when I hit a nice straight drive, or a nice iron shot that actually has some loft (my old iron shots were like line drives frequently), I get very excited cause I feel I have a decent shot of repeating that swing and becoming consistent.

I recently shot a +12 on the back nine of a course I play, which is good for me. And the thing was I didn't attribute it to "running good", but rather that I just had a decent foundation to work with.

Re: Which books have helped you out?
 

There are tons of great golf books. I've gotten something from every book I've read.
Some of my favorites:

The Natural Golf Swing by George Knudson

How to Perfect Your Golf Swing by Jimmy Ballard


On Learning Golf by Percy Boomer


Steve Elkington's Five Fundamentals of Golf

How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time by Tommy Armour

Learning Golf by Chuck Hogan

Practical Golf by John Jacobs

The Little Red Book by Harvey Penick

Re: Which books have helped you out?
 

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If you are interested in the Ernest Jones book I would strongly recommend you get Manuel DelaTorre's book "Understanding the Golf Swing." It is based on Ernest Jones's teaching and DelaTorre's father knew Jones. I think the DeLatorre book is better though, and there is also a DVD of it you can get if you like it. The Hogan book is a classic, but I don't think it is good in some ways. The grip section might be the best part. I think if you had to learn only from a book and got 1000 new players to try each, the Hogan book would lead to frustration and th Delatorre book would have people swinging it, on average, somewhat better. If you read and try both I think you will end up doing more of the DeLa Torre stuff. Somewhat tough to just learn from a book though.

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I just ordered the Dela Torre book and Jones' book.
I look forward to the read.
Passed on the DVD, the reviews weren't kind [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]