Butch Harmon About Golf

In a golf world that is awash in golf instruction, Butch Harmon had added a DVD instructional video to the sea. Harmon's contribution is a two DVD volume that encompasses all aspects of the game and covers a little over four hours of instruction. He leaves virtually no part of the game untouched.

DVD One begins with the fundamentals that are the core of the game for every golfer – Set Up (Alignment), Grip, Stance, Ball Position and Posture. This approach, learning the fundamentals before every learning how to swing the golf club, should be noted by every golfer and instructor. Harmon does a very detailed job explaining all of the fundamentals with some valuable tips on grip pressure (a nemesis for a ll golfers) and stance. I particularly like his teaching on ball position in which he emphasizes a constant ball position for all clubs. The only disappointment here is that Harmon does not discuss the importance of a preshot routine, the sum of all the fundamentals done repeatedly that gets you comfortable over the ball every time.

Next Harmon begins his discussion of the golf swing. He separates the takeaway and backswing with a discussion on both. He makes one statement that is crucial to the proper swinging of the golf club, “The weight should move in the direction that the club is traveling.” A mastery of this principle will make for a consistent and effective golf swing. Harmon finishes this section with the follow through and a few thoughts about a “Pretty Swing vs. an Efficient Swing.”

Harmon's second section is entitled “Faults, Cures & Drills.” Its purpose is to help the golfer get rid of bad habits as quickly as possible. He covers such topics as the topped shot, slice, and shank. This section is filled with drills to help cure the bad habits.

Sections three focuses on Specialty Shots such as intentionally hitting a draw, a fade, a low shot or a high shot. Harmon walks us through the specifics of hitting each type of shot. Bear in mind, hitting these shots will take some practice and perseverance.

Sections four and five deal with the short game - the basic wedge shot, pitching, chipping and bunker play. Harmon emphasizes the importance of the short game stating that the short game encompasses 65% of the golf game. (The introduction to this section gives a great view of the Las Vegas strip.) This is valuable instruction, however, I feel that it is geared to players who have had a little experience in the game.

Harmon begins DVD #2 with a section on putting. He covers all the basics of putting. The best aspect of this section is the putting drills that Harmon gives us. He even gives a couple of drills and tips for those who have the yips.

Section 7, entitled From Good to Great, contains testimonies and discussions from nine different tour pros – Couples, Els, Mickelson, Woods, etc. It's a good mix of testimony, discussion and instruction. Pay particular attention to the “towel” drill in this section.

Harmon finishes the instruction with sections on Selecting Correct Clubs, Fitness in Golf and Kids/Women/ Seniors.

Overall impression: excellent instruction on all of the basics. You will find this DVD to be most helpful if you have had some experience in the game. It is probably not for beginners.

THE BEST PUTTING INSTRUCTION BOOK EVER!

Without a doubt Golf Magazine has a definitive propensity for instructional books. They consistently publish classy looking and user friendly instruction books that are geared to all levels of players. The latest and perhaps best ever is THE BEST PUTTING INSTRUCTION BOOK EVER!. As in previous volumes much of the material was previously published in Golf Magazine itself, but that does not deter from the quality or timeliness of the information. It is epitome of “everything you wanted to know about putting in one place, but didn’t know who to ask or where to find it.” And the subtitle – The 10 Brightest Minds in Putting Show You the Easy Way to Make the Hole Look Bigger and Sink More Putts – reaffirms that statement.

The ten brightest minds include Stand Utley, Mike Adams, David Edel, Dr. David F. Wright, Mark Sweeney, Marius Filmalter, Scott Munroe, Dr. Craig Farnsworth, Maggie Will and Mike Shannon. Some of these may sound familiar and some obscure, but each has a unique approach to working with the flatstick. Each author pens a separate chapter primarily focusing on his or her area of expertise. The entire arena of putting is covered. Chapters include a full range of instruction from choosing the correct putter to building the perfect stance to reading the green to developing the stroke that fits you best to proper practice techniques. The final two chapters – How to Practice for Improvement (Farnsworth) and How to Fix Your Worst Flaws (Filmalter) – are properly placed in the book although these are the chapters to which most will gravitate first.

An added bonus with this volume are the “Watch & Learn” icons that direct you to a website where you can view a free video from a particular instructor – a can't miss feature.

THE BEST PUTTING INSTRUCTION BOOK EVER! is a visual masterpiece with a countless number of charts, diagrams and full color pictures. This is not a coffee-table book. It is a must-have in every serious golfer’s library and needs to be read and referred to constantly.

Mr Hogan, The Man I Knew

(Reviewed by Dave & Ellie Marrandette)

There have been a countless number of books and articles written about Ben Hogan, several of which are sitting on our shelves. Most deal with the technicalities of his golf swing (with a few asserting to have discovered his “secret”), or they are biographical in nature claiming to let us know Ben Hogan the man. But, regardless of the biographical slant, all but a couple are able to capture the real Ben Hogan. Some relate the famous Hogan stories with which all avid golf fans are familiar, but no book on Hogan reveals the caring, human side of the man the way that Kris Tschetter does.

What makes this book so appealing and captivating is its warmhearted look at Hogan through a most unexpected friendship. In a perfect blending of graciousness, insight, and sports history, Tschetter has humanized the golf legend through her first work of non-fiction, Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew. Tschetter has played on the LPGA Tour since 1988 and she joined with author Steve Eubanks for this book.

With an unpretentious eye she has given us a unique and inside perspective into the soul of a larger than life golf icon. Through her eyes we find that Ben Hogan was not the cold and uncaring persona that the sports world proclaimed him to be, but a caring individual who respected the regimented and disciplined actions of a young girl striving for perfection and reached out to help. As seemingly different as two souls could be, they became kindred spirits in their quest for precision in the game of golf. How she met Mr. Hogan, how he helped her game and how she respectfully sets the record straight on a few so-called “facts” of the game is the charm of this book. While it is in part biographical, it is a heartfelt tribute to one of the greatest golfers who ever graced the fairways.

Tschetter also did some digging through her pictorial archives to provide us with a few personal and priceless photos. Most interesting is a four page photo spread of Hogan's swing which Tschetter believes is the last time his swing was filmed.

Mr Hogan is a gentle and brisk read uncomplicated by golf lingo and technicalities. It is a relationship story that would almost seem like great fiction if you didn't know it was true. Gentlemen golfers, give this to your wife. Lady golfers, make sure your husband reads this to see that golf is more than swinging a club at a ball.

Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew is one of my top five golf books of the year – an absolute must for all golfers to read.

(Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew is due to be released by Gotham Books on October 14, 2010.)

Tom Watson: Lessons of a Lifetime

There seems no better occasion than this period between the U.S. Open (Father's Day) and the British Open to discuss Tom Watson: Lessons of a Lifetime. There is nostalgia at both ends. Watson just completed what may be his final appearance in the U.S. Open appropriately at Pebble Beach, site of his momentous 1982 U.S. Open victory. He also just happened to have his son “on the bag” during the tournament. Now he is about to return to the British Open, this year being played at St. Andrews. You will, of course, remember the heart break from last year, losing in a playoff last year at age 59.

In between all of this Watson has produced Lessons of a Lifetime. There are few who have learned how to play the game like Watson. He always seemed to have just the right shot at the right time. Exhibit A, of course, is the chip-in on the 17th at Pebble Beach in the last round of the 1982 U.S. Open. There is no better player to listen to and learn from concerning how to play the game.

Make no mistake. This is an instructional two-disc set. It runs almost three hours and is neatly divided into two distinct parts. In Disc One Watson focuses on the fundamentals of the game (grip, setup, aim, etc.) and then gets into the golf swing. Disc Two holds the Watson specialty – the short game. In his prime there was no one better. Watson gives us the basics of the short game and also some of the intricacies around the green. This instruction is worth the price.

Fittingly, Watson ends Disc Two with a tribute to his longtime friend and caddie Bruce Edwards. Anyone with a sense of history for the game is aware of the story. Have a hankie ready for this part.

For any golfer, regardless of skill or involvement in the game, Lessons of a Lifetime is a must have. How could anyone pass up a learning experience from one of the greats of the game.

This DVD set is available at http://www.tomwatson.com/, Watson's new website. This is a place you will also want to linger for a while.

Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine

If you are a die-hard golfer, chances are you are obsessed with swing mechanics, always trying to find that one swing key to gain distance and narrow the shot pattern. So if you are in this category, it is likely that you have encountered Homer Kelley's monumental work The Golfing Machine. Kelley's ground breaking and eccentric study of the golf swing became cult-like in the world of golf instruction.

But what would drive a man to spend virtually his entire life in the pursuit of solving the conundrum of the golf swing? The answer lies in the explanation of how a man could play golf for the first time and score 116 and then six months later with no play or practice in between shoot a 77. Kelley's lifelong passion became the 39 stroke difference between those two scores.

Scott Gummer has taken a sensitive and judicious examination of the man and his work in an effort to help us appreciate the genius behind the most comprehensive study of the golf swing. The Golfing Machine is slightly more technical than the NASA Flight Manual but in Kelley's mind all the technicalities were necessary to completely dissect the golf swing. Yet, Gummer does not attempt to explain The Golfing Machine to us but rather reveal the man. He accomplishes this unmistakably. You will come away with a much more acute understanding of how one man, a non-golfer, could accomplish such a task.

Gummer also gives us insight into the book itself which took on a life of its own. Kelley labored for over twenty years before he published the book. When he did, the seeds of The Golfing Machine grew slowly. But Kelley persisted and finally found a teaching disciple in Ben Doyle and eventually playing disciple in Bobby Clampett. Gummer relates this life to us throughout the second part of the book.

If you are a golf swing aficionado, and especially if you are fascinated by The Golfing Machine, Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine is an absolute must read. It gives us greater awareness into the mystery we know as the golf swing.

Straight Down the Middle

Ever since Chevy Chase exhorted us to “be the ball,” golfers have been seeking the elusive “zone,” a place in the time-space continuum where physical ability has been layed aside and the mind conquers. Or perhaps the quest began when a shepherd first struck a rock with a crooked stick. Or perhaps this does not matter.

What does matter is that someone has actually documented that chase, lived (in a keep-your-sanity sort of way) to tell about it, and actually come out on the other side as a golfer more focused on the spirit of the game. Josh Karp's most recent volume Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing takes us on that journey.

Let’s face it, every golfer is trying in some way, shape or form to lower his or her score. Golfers will try just about anything. They’ll listen to any piece of swing advice from virtually anyone, always searching for the magic that will drop the score even one or two strokes per round. But very seldom do they pay attention to the mental game.

So, is it possible to transform one’s game and lower one’s handicap from the inside-out – increased attention to the mental game – as opposed to the outside-in – give a try to the latest and greatest swing tip?

Karp sums up the thesis of his quest in Chapter 2 when he states, “…that the actual ‘playing’ of a round of golf occurs in roughly 180 seconds… What’s happening the rest of the time, where our mind resides during that time, is something we pay almost no attention to, yet which profoundly impacts our performance.” From this realization the pursuit is on.

He goes from guru, to sensei, to golfing Buddha in an endeavor to find peace of mind in the mind boggling game of golf. As we travel with Karp we discover what seems like an endless number of golf instructors totally focused on the playing the game with just the mind and damn the swing.
Not only does Karp tell us his story – the toils and the triumphs – but he also passes along some useful (at least to him) instruction and drills such as the Jug McSpaden drill (pgs. 61-62). He also presents us with an apt description of the relationship between golf and spirituality, the struggle to make the ball do what you want it to do through only the force of our will.

How did all the senseis, gurus, Zen masters and whatevers help? Well, for one brief two month period beginning on August 8, 2008, Karp found himself in the zone … or whatever Zen golfers choose to call it. Golfing nirvana set in. But just as quickly and suddenly as it arrived, it was taken away by the ever vengeful golf gods.

And how does it all end for Karp? Let’s just say he is at peace with his golf game.

To Win and Die in Dixie

One of the marvelous aspects of golf is the rich history that it contains. And the most fascinating element of that history is the characters that the game has embraced. Tournaments come and go year by year, but it is the great characters that make the game come alive.

It is easy to recognize the more famous characters – Vardon, Jones, Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus and a host of others. But is it a real discovery when a virtually unknown personality from the past is spiritually resurrected and brought to our attention. Such is the accomplishment of Steve Eubanks in bringing to us the story of J. Douglas Edgar in his latest book To Win and Die in Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Golf Swing the the Mysterious Death of Its Creator.

I must admit, even though I consider myself an enthusiastic student of golf history, I had never heard of J. Douglas Edgar. Yet when I had completed the book, I wondered how I had ever overlooked him. It is perhaps that his life was tragically cut short and that he never reached his full playing and teaching potential.

It is this story that Eubanks has uncovered for us. It is a biography of Edgar revealed through the investigation of his death by a determined Atlanta Constitution reporter Comer Howell. It is a story that contains all the elements of a great fictional murder mystery with one exception – it is not fiction; it is real life.

Eubanks has certainly done his research on the charismatic life and mysterious death of Edgar. The book is filled with detailed narrative. He has seemingly omitted no detail. But this great detail leads us to some fascinating stories. We learn a bit about Margaret Mitchell and how she drew her fiction from real life stories. We are also treated to a fun story concerning Alexa Sterling (pg. 98) revealing how greatly the times have changed in just over 100 years.

But as involved as we might get in the life and death of J. Douglas Edgar, we cannot forget his contribution to golf – the fundamentals of the modern golf swing. Chapter 7 gives us a good description of what is known as the Edgar Movement.

For students of the golf swing and golf history To Win and Die in Dixie is a must read; to those who enjoy a real life, enticing murder-mystery, it is a must read; and to those who would like to pick up some historical trivia, it is a must read.