Bookshelf

No one on the forum has so far mentioned all those 'How to Play Golf' books and videos. It will depend on how you like to learn, but it has to be said that MOH hasn’t had a lesson in years and has reduced his handicap from 24 to 15, mainly from reading golf mags and his growing collection (home extension soon required) of books. Yes, he is dedicated, but it works for him. I’m usually happy to wait for tit-bits of his distilled knowledge to fall my way, but one book that made sense to me was the Swing Factory. You’ve probably heard of those guys who keep their pupils locked up in a basement until the swing is as it should be. Since the book was a Christmas present we decided to give it a whirl (literally) in our very own Swing Factory (i.e. garage) for most of the following January. The book doesn’t say a lot (though the photos are good for celeb-spotting: my eagle eye picked out Hugh Grant straight away) but it does explain everything in minute detail. It’s a painstaking, golf-swing-by-numbers approach that could probably destroy a decent swing, but I do believe it was the first thing that got me taking the club back on the right plane.
As for the rest? Well, maybe I should have just gone for that lesson!

If you like your reading a bit lighter, of all the books out there, each with a wackier title than the next, I urge you to read the wackiest, My Baby Got the Yips by David Russell. Here’s a guy who played off 6 at Sunningdale and was in line for a career in golf, but somehow just didn’t have what it takes to play the game at a high level. Luckily for us, he came back to the game, re-discovered his love for it and recorded his experiences in this book. He includes all kinds of things, mixing personal memoir with bits of history and even golf tips. I read it on holiday in the company of three golfing buddies all with different reading habits. Each of us read it in turn, cover to cover, and annoyed everyone else by laughing out loud. And the author is a bit of a tease. He leaves it until the last chapters to tell us what he believes are the true Secrets of Golf. Pretty good tips they are too. (Me, a tease?)