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Watch
this space for recommendations...including:
The
best books on
golf instruction, golf architecture, the mental game,
golf novels, and general golf writing |
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Fiction
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Missing
Links, THE funniest
golf book written yet. If you enjoy the wit of Rick
Reilly (the back page columnist of Sports Illustrated),
you’ll love this yarn of the haves versus the
have-nots, the public players versus the country
club boys. Bostonians will recognize the thinly veiled
references to Ponkapoag (the saddest muni in the
US) and The Country Club (world-renowned private
which has hosted several US Opens and the 99 Ryder
Cup). Good golf, good story, and great laughs. I
have probably given this as a gift more than any
other book. |
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Shanks
for Nothing, Reilly’s
unusually good sequel to Missing
Links. New twists
and challenges for the members of Ponkaquogue Municipal
Golf Links and the high living swells of The Mayflower
Club. |
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The
Greatest Player Who Never Lived: A Golf Story.
A strange premise makes for an interesting
story. The first golf novel by Michael Veron takes us
back in time to the Bobby Jones era, where we learn
that what really drove the estimable co-founder
of Augusta National was his rivalry with a great
and worthy opponent that almost no one else ever
knew. And why have you never hear of him? As the
mystery unfolds, you’re caught up in a legal
mystery more intriguing than a downhill double-breaker.
You’ll just have to read it to find out. |
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A
Storm at Pebble Beach, by Harry Forse. wraps the US Pro-Am at Pebble Beach
around a mystery, international intrigue, business
skullduggery, and even a little romance thrown in.
If you’ve ever played Pebble, or enjoyed it vicariously,
this lighter piece is entertaining.
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Bad
Lie, by John
Corrigan, is the second novel in a series of mysteries
with aging PGA pro Jack Austin, who, with his private
investigator buddy, uncovers a drug scandal, a
murder, and other nefarious deeds that go on within
and around the pro Tour. |
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Nonfiction
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Who’s
Your Caddy (Caddying for the Greats, Near-Greats, and
Reprobates of Golf), by Rick Reilly, proves
once again that Donald Trump really is an ass; that
Jack Nicklaus can’t be bothered; and that no
one writes funnier golf—even non-fiction, than
Reilly. The author sends out letters and makes calls
all across the country, offering to carry the bags
of pro golfers and others, and gets the strangest results
or lack thereof, along the way. Once again, I promise
you’ll laugh at his language and characterizations
of people you only thought you knew. Tommy Aaron at
the Masters. Plus John Daly. David Duval. Even Bob
Newhart. Reilly plays ringmaster to a very weird circus.
Enjoy.
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Cinderella
Story, My Life in Golf By Bill Murray, with George Peper.
Reward yourself with Cinderella Story, a short, light,
but surprisingly satisfying bit of writing. There’s
Bill cavorting with his brothers, cutting up in the Cypress
Hills clubhouse, and there’s also Bill showing
up at a small local charity to help a child who needs
a kidney transplant. It’s part train(wreck)–of-thought,
part myth debunking, part auto. But it’s all heartwarming,
and you get a smile on every page. |
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Golf
Dreams, Writings on Golf by John Updike is a delightful
bundle of 30 essays, short stories, and excerpts from
the master’s novels. From a treatise on the metaphysics
of golf, to the story of Farrell’s Caddy, where
the humble teaches he who must be humbled. This book
is a sweet nine iron that tucks right next to the pin. |
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The
Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet,
and the Birth of Modern Golf by Mark Frost. How did a
rank amateur capture the US Open from the world’s
best players, and jumpstart America’s love for
golf? Read the best seller by Mark Frost, to learn how
young Francis Ouimet, with seven clubs and a 10-year
old caddy, shook up the world in 1913. P.S. I strongly
recommend you do NOT see the movie; it’s not at
all a good representation of the book. |
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But
there’s more to the Ouimet story. Also read Golf
Links (Chay Burgess, Francis Ouimet, and the Bringing
of Golf to America) by Charles D. Burgess, the great-grandson
of the protagonist. Chay was Ouimet’s first real
instructor, largely unmentioned in Frost’s book.
While Frost writes in a fictional voice to tell a great
story, Burgess tells his story from letters and records,
and details how Burgess coached Ouimet at Brookline High
in Boston’s closest-in suburb, and taught him some
of his mental as well as physical golfing strengths.
He also retells the story of the 1913 U.S. Open, and
you wished the tournament ran a month long as you read
of the day-to-day battle. |
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OPEN
(Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black), one of several
excellent golf books by John Feinstein, details the behind-the-scenes
development, planning, scheming, tensions, and elations
of hosting and producing the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black
in 2002. You thought your club championship was a headache?
The planning started in 1994. Here you’ll follow
the grounds crew, the USGA officials, the civil authorities,
the politicians at so many levels, the fans, the superintendent
and his team, the architect, the rules officials, and
eventually the players during the actual event. Feinstein
was granted rare access to almost every important meeting
concerning the Open, and you get to go along for the
ride. (Seatbelts recommended.) |
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Game Improvement
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Golf
Is Not a Game of Perfect You want great advice for the
mental game? Look no further than Bob Rotella, with Bob
Cullen. He invented the genre with this book. As a sports
psychologist and coach, and now advisor to many PGA pros,
Rotella uses the device of story telling to impart his
advice. Rotella gets to the places in the psyche that
count. |
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Golf
is A Game of Confidence by Bob Rotella with Bob Cullen
is the second in this series, and expands upon the first.
I bought these as CDs and often play them on the way
to the course. As Rotella reads his own words, interspersing
stories of PGA and LPGA pros overcoming tough mental
situations with more direct tips, you find plenty to
incorporate into your own game. |
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Putting
Out of Your Mind, by Rotella and Cullen, is the third,
and most focused of the series. Again Rotella here tells
stories of pros, but he weaves in more mental rules you
can call up when you need to sink that scary 5-footer
to win the weekend nassau, or break 80 for the first
time. |
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The
Golf of Your Dreams by Bob Rotella with Bob Cullen. Although
this has the most pages, it has the simplest message.
Basically Rotella here tells you to find a good golf
pro, use these methods to evaluate whether he or she
is a good fit for you, and then commit to that instructor
and commit to practice. Which you might be able to apply
to any sport on earth. But still, the Rotella voice has
a way of motivating, even if you already knew all this. |
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The Golfer’s Mind: Play To Play Great, by yes, Rotella, and Cullen. More
of the same? Yup. But I can’t get enough. New stories of mental challenges
solved by Tour players and others, and more tips you can use today. I own all
5 volumes and revisit each of them from time to time. You will, too. |
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Putt
Like The Pros by Dave Pelz, the short
game guru, came out in 1991. I still go back
to it. It’s a little less technical than
his Putting Bible and Short
Game Bible, both
classics I had to have as well (see below). But
this earlier book explores some of his more general
findings. The physicist in Pelz applied the scientific
method to the roll of the ball, the speed at
which putts either drop or lip out, the likely
varying characteristics of the area around the
hole from the morning’s first round to
the last. The subtitle is: Dave
Pelz’s
Scientific Way to Improving Your Stroke, Reading
Greens, and Lowering Your Score. |
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See also Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible, a thick tome of everything you ever
wanted to know about 40% of your strokes. From chapters like the ‘Seven
Building Blocks of Stroke Mechanics, “Green Reading,” and “The
Improvement Process,” Pelz deftly gives plenty of detail for those who
want it, but still writes in an accessible style for those who want the bottom
line What do I do?” |
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Dave
Pelz’s Short Game Bible (Master The Finesse
Swing and Lower Your Score) addresses chipping,
wedges, lob shots, and play from bunkers—any
and every shot from 100 feet out to the edge of
the green. The physicist Pelz shows you—through
research, when it’s better to chip with an
8-iron or a pitching wedge. He breaks the game
into 5 sub-games: the power game, the mental game,
the course management game, the putting game, and
the short game. And he makes the case better than
just about anyone why mastery of the short game
is the fastest path to better scores. |
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Dave Pelz's 10 Minutes a
Day to Better Putting [ILLUSTRATED] came out in 2003,
but I have yet to read it.
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Tom
Watson’s Strategic
Golf is still a favorite
I go back to every year from time to time. First
published in 1993 (it talks about 250-yard drives),
it still has much relevance to any golfer playing
today. You don’t win tournaments by hitting
fantastic shot after shot; you win by not having
to hit fantastic shots, by managing your game and
using your strengths on each hole you face. Watson
talks about short par 4s, match play, doglegs,
how to play a practice round, and much, much more.
Using dozens of examples and clear illustrations,
this small volume could shave strokes off anyone’s
game. |
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Inner
Golf by Timothy Gallwey. Save your
money.
But, you say, Gallwey’s Inner Tennis may
be the greatest book on tennis self-instruction
ever written. I think so. I’ve given it as
a gift probably ten times. But the WORST book on
golf, sadly, is his Inner Golf. They are
different games and no matter how hard Gallwey
tries to impose his Self 1 versus Self 2 approach,
in the golf book it just comes off as silly. Not
recommended. |
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Architecture
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Anatomy
of a Golf Course (The Art of Golf Architecture). Architect Tom Doaks (designer of Bandon Dunes and
other amazing layouts) takes you on a tour on the
best golf holes and tells you why they’re
to be admired, and why they’re so often imitated.
He quotes and illustrates with the work of the
greats, Ross, Tillinghast, Raynor, Mackenzie, Dye,
and great courses, St. Andrews, Royal Dornoch,
Pebble Beach and more. You’ll come away with
a new appreciation for every course you play, and
maybe even get a leg up on your opponents, using
new insights for better course management. Great
line illustrations and color photos, too. |
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Grounds
for Golf,The History and Fundamentals of Golf Course
Design by Geoff Shackelford is an homage to the
classic holes the old masters (Tillinghast, etc)
have left us. Some books evaluate a whole course,
and he includes quite a few, but the beauty of
this volume for me is where breaks down the brilliance
of particularly great holes, with simple but wonderful
grid illustrations by Gil Hanse. Shackelford writes
with definite attitude: he's not impressed with
certain "name" designers who charge a million or
two without adding much of their own labor. I found
myself smiling and nodding through much of his
commentary. If you love already love golf architecture,
or are looking for a pithy introduction, this is
a very satisfying read. |
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More Recommendations to Come:
• New courses,
upgrades, or old ones you should not miss
• Equipment or accessories
we find valuable
• Websites every golfer
should bookmark
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