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What are the recent books you have read on improving your game? Videos too ...

ShotScope
Follow The Sun

Follow The Sun

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Mine: My Game and Yours Arnold Palmer ... Ben Hogan Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf ...

Both old school but gems ... grip, head and solid at the top ... and more ...

Good Golfing ...
 
Essentials of the Swing: A 7-Point Plan for Building a Better Swing and Shaping Your Shots" from Hank Haney

I don't think it's incredible correct or well written, but it has helped me view my improvement as a system and how to build one part and then build the next.

Unpopular opinion, Hogan's book s done more damage than good by creating generations of slicers.
 
I don’t read a lot of books or watch a lot of videos. I am a pretty big believer in having an actual instructor look at and work with your swing. With that said, I am always trying to figure out what I can work on to save strokes. I have realized that while I worked on my chipping a lot and have gotten better there, I have never really been taught how to execute a proper pitch shot. That also got me to thinking that if you watched a bunch of amateur golfers around here play, you would rarely see any of them do it. I feel like the biggest hole in my game is inside 75 yards to chipping range.

I decided to on my own watch a few pitch shot videos online and learn the basics. I can’t recall which ones but have looked at 2-3 different ones. Each has a bit something different to offer and none are a perfect fit for me. I also paid close attention to pitches during the tournament last weekend on tv to see any little details pros do.

I have been practicing on my own in the back yard for 4-5 days now. It’s hot, humid, and just plain miserable out so I am doing mostly early morning and late evening with a few swings when it is shady out back in the middle of the day. It is starting to come along really nicely. I need to get a bit more consistent and then I can start focusing more on learning feel for distances for me.
 
I recently signed up for the DECADE App, and I am loving it. It is helping me manage my expectations and to pick good targets while I go around the course. My scores have been improving as I apply what I've learned.
 
Been listening to Hogan's Fundamentals on repeat with Audible for the past month or so. I prefer listening to books rather than reading them.

I've got plenty of Audible credits to burn so hopefully this thread generates some good recs.
 
Practical Golf by John Jacobs is one of the classic books on golf.
 
I own so many golf books, videos, etc., I wouldn't know where to start. But I enjoy recycling and revisiting them all every few years. It's amazing how a blurb or a picture or a video segment that you've seen 10 dozen times all of a sudden has a more clear meaning and leads to an "AHA!" moment.
 
I've been getting emails on Clay Ballard's Top-Speed(?) golf system which features videos that are live for a limited time (and of course give you plenty of opportunities to pay for full access). Anyway, I've really found his approach to be effective.
 
I've been reading Nicklaus's book "Playing Lessons". Pretty decent read, and easy to understand in layman terms. I really like his info on the mental aspect of the game.
 
Just purchased a series from Brian Mogg, Performance Golf Zone. So far the techniques are sound. I have yet to golf since watching the videos but we shall see.
 
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It seems to be working.
 
Follow The Sun said:
Mine: My Game and Yours Arnold Palmer ... Ben Hogan Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf ...

Both old school but gems ... grip, head and solid at the top ... and more ...

Good Golfing ...
Click to expand...

Hogan’s book was how I got started 30 years ago and I just got a copy for my sweetie.
 
That post said:
Been listening to Hogan's Fundamentals on repeat with Audible for the past month or so. I prefer listening to books rather than reading them.

I've got plenty of Audible credits to burn so hopefully this thread generates some good recs.
Click to expand...
I agree but the pictures in that book are pretty handy.
 
 
 


 
Stryker said:
I don’t read a lot of books or watch a lot of videos. I am a pretty big believer in having an actual instructor look at and work with your swing. With that said, I am always trying to figure out what I can work on to save strokes. I have realized that while I worked on my chipping a lot and have gotten better there, I have never really been taught how to execute a proper pitch shot. That also got me to thinking that if you watched a bunch of amateur golfers around here play, you would rarely see any of them do it. I feel like the biggest hole in my game is inside 75 yards to chipping range.

I decided to on my own watch a few pitch shot videos online and learn the basics. I can’t recall which ones but have looked at 2-3 different ones. Each has a bit something different to offer and none are a perfect fit for me. I also paid close attention to pitches during the tournament last weekend on tv to see any little details pros do.

I have been practicing on my own in the back yard for 4-5 days now. It’s hot, humid, and just plain miserable out so I am doing mostly early morning and late evening with a few swings when it is shady out back in the middle of the day. It is starting to come along really nicely. I need to get a bit more consistent and then I can start focusing more on learning feel for distances for me.
Click to expand...
I'll echo this, sort of. When I first started playing golf I made the mistake of trying to use books and videos to develop correct full-swing technique, because I didn't see the value that was provided by paying for lessons. Unfortunately, I feel like I wasted the first five years I was trying to learn to play golf. In hindsight, finding a good instructor and working with them yielded the best results for me. I'm still actually implementing technical improvements that I'd initially learned over two years ago.

This all being said, I still love to read books about golf. "The Practice Manual" from Adam Young has been an amazing way for me to be able to further enhance the instruction that I'd received. Young provides detailed information pertaining to drills to hone skills, which may or may not be touched on by your instructor. The information contained within his pages allowed me to truly understand ball flight, develop feel, and work on calibrating my strike zone.

Additionally, an instructor very-rarely provides instruction on the mental game. Learning how to calm the mind, develop specific focus, and reacting to a variety of shots is paramount in becoming a better golfer. "Zen Golf" by Joseph Parent has also been a book that I'll read on an annual basis. It's just nice to get some Personal Development in the game.

Finally, I really enjoyed "Every Shot Counts" by Mark Broadie. He is the developer of the Strokes Gained Metric, and is able to show with statistical evidence over the course of ten years of data collection how to better improve your golf game. The book is able to definitively determine where the "most important" parts of the game are, how to determine where you need to improve, and even covers course management and additional drills for improvement. I have personally put this book and the purchase of the Arccos tracking system to work for me in the last 3 weeks, and am already seeing marked improvement.

Best of luck!
 
BishopBreaks80 said:
I'll echo this, sort of. When I first started playing golf I made the mistake of trying to use books and videos to develop correct full-swing technique, because I didn't see the value that was provided by paying for lessons. Unfortunately, I feel like I wasted the first five years I was trying to learn to play golf. In hindsight, finding a good instructor and working with them yielded the best results for me. I'm still actually implementing technical improvements that I'd initially learned over two years ago.

This all being said, I still love to read books about golf. "The Practice Manual" from Adam Young has been an amazing way for me to be able to further enhance the instruction that I'd received. Young provides detailed information pertaining to drills to hone skills, which may or may not be touched on by your instructor. The information contained within his pages allowed me to truly understand ball flight, develop feel, and work on calibrating my strike zone.

Additionally, an instructor very-rarely provides instruction on the mental game. Learning how to calm the mind, develop specific focus, and reacting to a variety of shots is paramount in becoming a better golfer. "Zen Golf" by Joseph Parent has also been a book that I'll read on an annual basis. It's just nice to get some Personal Development in the game.

Finally, I really enjoyed "Every Shot Counts" by Mark Broadie. He is the developer of the Strokes Gained Metric, and is able to show with statistical evidence over the course of ten years of data collection how to better improve your golf game. The book is able to definitively determine where the "most important" parts of the game are, how to determine where you need to improve, and even covers course management and additional drills for improvement. I have personally put this book and the purchase of the Arccos tracking system to work for me in the last 3 weeks, and am already seeing marked improvement.

Best of luck!
Click to expand...
I tried Arccos for a bit. Yes it definitely can be beneficial. My problem with it was that it would miss shots and then I had to try and go back and edit those. I also hated having my phone in my pocket. I don’t even like my wallet or keys in my pocket.

I often use my scorecard to track stats myself. No yardages mind you like a GPS would but I can record things like FIR, GIR, misses on those, putts, penalty strokes etc. I don’t pay for Arccos, don’t waste time correcting missed shots, don’t have a phone in my pocket, yet I still have data to know where I need to work on my game.

Don’t get me wrong, I not saying Arccos is bad. I think it is a great tool. I did enjoy the data but just found the cons were not to my liking and I could effectively track areas to work on without it.
 
I just read John Daly’s “My Life In And Out Of The Rough” and learned I’m not drinking and smoking enough! :cool::p
 
I've started my golf book winter reading-MR P green and red, the two Hogan books, Ray Floyd, even LSW (lol). I like these because they give me nuggets I can relate to. I can't relate to angles and swing speed stuff.
 
someones reading comprehension and the writers ability to communicate is a huge factor here. some books I have are very verbose and say almost nothing to me. some are short but I can't internalize it---- I learn this years after reading the book and think oh chit, that what was he was telling me.

So I was taking my daughter to a swim meet about 4 years ago and I was looking for some reading material. Could not find my hogan book so picked up a yellow back book by tommy armour given to me 20 years prior. As I sat reading that book at the meet, I started to read the book literally. that started me on a learning journey that changed my swing. more fundamentally it changed the way I thought about the swing after +25 years of golf. I can't say enough about how this simple book has helped me when I took it literally then understood I could not do literally. i don't know if I will ever be a scratch golfer but at my rate of improvement I have at least a chance and certain I can play golf without getting mad at myself in retirement.

it was only about 6 months ago that I figured out that Tommy had won like 3 or 4 majors. So some of his comments now feel like he is screaming, hey idiot super athlete, your grip alone will cause you to fail, but what do I know. I have just won majors and taught like 10,000 of you great athletes.
 
THE ANATOMY OF GREATNESS by Brandel Chamblee. It looks at the traits that are common to great players such as Jack, Hogan, Snead, Nelson and Jones. I enjoyed it very much.
 
I have been watching a ton of Mike Malaska videos. I play very tense at times and he focuses on being relaxed. It is proving to help me a lot so far.
 
I just finished reading Golf is not a game of perfect by Bob Rotella. Would highly recommend the book as it has helped me reshape my mental approach to th game.
 
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