The real "best" golf books

[Coach]

Trying to get a feel from those who read more than magazines. Partial list:
1 - The Greatest Game Ever Played (don't bother watching the movie)
2 - Golf In The Kingdom (Shivas Irons)
3 - Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect(Rotella's best)
4 - Inner Game of Golf (Good for the head)

Others??

[Rockford35]

Tom Wishon's The Search for the Perfect Golf Club.

The true ho's bible.

R35

[emc]

Golf is not a game of perfect (Bob Rotella)
Inner Game of Golf (Timothy Galway)
Open (John Feinstein; all the backstage things that went into hosting the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black. Really interesting)
How we won the Ryder Cup (Various; the European caddies perspective of all the Ryder Cups since 1985, my favourite golf book)
How I play Golf (Tiger Woods)

[Fitzpatrick]

Golf My Way, Jack Nicklaus
Ben Hogan: An American Life, James Dodson
Five Fundamentals, Ben Hogan

[warbirdlover]

Tom Wishon's The Search for the Perfect Golf Club.

The true ho's bible.

R35

Best, most useful, golf book I've ever read...

[gwlee7]

Just for the stories let alone the swing tips and "theory" one of my favorites is Harvey Penick's Little Red Book.

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by gwlee7

Just for the stories let alone the swing tips and "theory" one of my favorites is Harvey Penick's Little Red Book.

Yep, good one. The little Blue book is a winner too.

R35

[sandwedge]

Here are some that I have enjoyed and have helped with my game:

Ben Hogan's Five Lessons (great for learning the fundamentals)

How I Play Golf by Tiger Woods

Tour Tempo by John Novosel (interesting approach)

Harvey Penick's Litte Red Book

The Golfer's Mind: Play to Play Great by Bob Rotella (good for the mind game)

David Leadbetter's 100% Golf (good for beginners)

Who's Your Caddy by Rick Reilly (funny stories about caddying for Donald Trump, John Daly, Jack Nichlaus, and more)

[cypressperch]

seem to have caught on as well as I think it should have. It is THE GOLF SWING SIMPLIFIED by John Jacobs (A great contribution that somehow grew out of impure soil. ). Many of the illustrations automatically have you understanding the swing without even reading the text. Add the text, and you have as informative and easy-to-understand presentation of the basic golf swing as you can have. And it is presented in a way that makes it useful to any INDIVIDUAL GOLFER. No golfer should miss the part about the geometry of golf. An understanding of this coupled with what Jacobs teaches about the swing, and a person can almost be their own perfect swing guru.

GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT is probably the best book on the mental aspects of the game that I have ever read.

There is a lot of valuable stuff in the "Little Books" that Harvey Pinick wrote.

I would be a liar if I said I got nothing from Hogan's book on the FIVE FUNDAMENTALS. Reading it is sort of a right of passage, but I would also be a liar if I said it was more useful TO ME than John Jacob's book.

Tiger's book is not bad.

Anybody ever read ADVANCED GOLF by Cary Middlecoff? Didn't think so, but it was my first golf book and for sentimental reasons, I will at least mention it.

Sincerely, Cypressperch

[JEFF4i]

Little Red Book, I like.

[ualtim]

The best things about Penick's books are the length of each story. A perfect bathroom reader.

I would recommend all the Penick books Red, Green, Blue, Pink (or what ever color it was relased in, "For all who enjoy the game". I bought it for my wife and read it as well.) and the book that is out now which is a combination of all four books.

I love all of Feherty's books. Both of the "idiot" books are volumes of his previous columns in Golf Magazine and on line, he has one novel, and his history of the Ryder Cup book is priceless.

Feinstein's golf books are always enjoyable.

Of course, Wishon's books for the serious club ho's and those trying to improve their equipment. His books are better than his videos. I have a few of his Golfsmith videos from the 90's and he reminds of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Arnold Palmer has a golf rules book out that I can read over and over. Some great stories, but more importantly, he discusses the rules in an entertaining fashion. I have learned a ton from this book (the best one being that you do not get penalized for losing a ball in casual water) and would recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about the rules without going through all the lawyer speak in the USGA version.

I have a whole shelf full of other golf books, but these are my favorites, enjoy.

[gregfletch]

I really liked a lot of the books mentioned above. Here are a few more that I really liked....

Going Low - How to Break Youur Individual Golf Scoring Barrier by Thinking Like a Pro... by Patrick Cohn, Ph.D.

How to Break 90 by T.J. Tomasi, Mike Adams and Mike Corcoran - really helped....

Putting Out of Your Mind by Rotella - good stuff...

[Links R Best]

[quote=ualtim;93588]The best things about Penick's books are the length of each story. A perfect bathroom reader.



Couldn't agree more,I loved for the exact same reason.
I also enjoyed Bud Sweat and Tees ,as an insight into the life of a caddy and his relationship with the player.

[Fourputt]

I haven't made a habit of reading a lot of golf books, but the first I ever bought was "Golf My Way" by Jack Nicklaus. It's been years since I read it, so I don't really remember much about it, but I know that it helped me over some humps in my game at the time.

One that I got as a gift and have been reading off and on lately is a collection of stories by 30 different writers called "The Greatest Golf Stories Ever Told" (edited by Jeff Silverman). It is entertaining rather than instructional, but makes for some interesting reading. The authors include Grantland Rice, A.A. Milne (Winne the Pooh author),P.G. Wodehouse, Rick Reilly, George Plimpton, Gary McCord, Ian Fleming, Alistair Cooke, and John Updike to name just a few. Some of the stories are historical in nature, others humourous, some reflective. All give different insights into the game of golf, often from unexpected directions. A good, worthwhile read.

[ualtim]

Silly me, I almost forgot one of my favorite golf books, "Strategic Golf" by Tom Watson. It is the only golf book that I have found that concentrates on golf strategy rather than golf instruction. This book really helped me out when I first became serious about the game.