February Bookshelf

MOH has just invested in Private Lessons, a collection of tips from Golf Magazine. I don't know the (U.S.) magazine but really love the presentation of this book. Each 'lesson' is a double-page spread with just the right balance of text and illustrations to make things crystal clear. The drawings, which give the book its distinctive look are all by Barry Ross, and I'm happy to say that almost 50% of them are of women golfers. (How refreshing!)
The only minor grumble is that the arrangement is a bit odd, with some topics covered in more than one section, but the contents and index make everything pretty easy to find.
Now the crucial question, is it any good? Well it looks like it should be, and if my golf has taken a distinct downturn of late, that's probably to be expected. Or, as someone quipped when MOH had a bad round, 'Have you been having lessons?'
Moral of the story: things get worse before they get better.

Talking of morals and stories (neat segue?), Tom Cox has found a golfing bonkbuster called Private Members which had got under my radar. It's about a golf club where, to quote Amazon, 'only the over-sexed, the over-rich and the over-beautiful need apply.'
I have to agree with Tom that this doesn't sound like any golf club I've ever seen. Clearly the book is the most arrant nonsense appealing only to sex-starved escapist fantasists. On the other hand there are reviewers who think it's a lot of fun. Maybe I'm just writing for the wrong market?
Review of Private Members pending - (if I dare.)

Preferred Reading

I play golf, I read books, but I rarely read golf books, relying on MOH to read them for me and pass on nuggets of useful information and the occasional timely tip. But my latest read, Preferred Lies: A Journey to the Heart of Golf, by Andrew Greig, is not a conventional golf book, but more of a memoir in which golf happens to play a central part. Greig, a poet and novelist, wrote the book while recuperating from a life-saving brain operation, and this lends it an intensity that reflects his own state of mind but I think is ideal for conveying the essentially solitary nature of the game itself. The book reflects the inner dialogue we have with ourselves as we go round, although he also drops in observations on the history and development of the game as well as its addictive powers. Golfers won’t necessarily like this book, but he’s done us a favour in trying to elucidate what keeps us hooked, while reminding us of the pointlessness of anger in a game where your only opponent is the course, or (more likely) your own lack of patience. This is the only book I can imagine giving to a non-golfer, in the hope that the sheer quality of the writing might persuade them that golf is a life-affirming activity rather than a waste of time. In a week of poor rounds, it has also been therapy for me!

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?)