Sports & Recreation : Golf

Ben Hogan’s former ball shagger recounts firsthand stories of the golf legend—and reveals, for the first time, Hogan’s Swing Secret, a source of mystery to golfers for more than fifty years. Ben Hogan’s pro golf record is legendary. A four-time PGA Player of the Year, he celebrated sixty-three tournament wins and became known as a man of few words and fewer close friends. Most of what we know about Hogan has been based on myth and speculation. Until now. In the 1960s, though Hogan’s competitive career was over, he kept the practice habits that made him famous and remade modern competitive golf. He hired seventeen-year-old Jody Vasquez to help. Each day, after driving to a remote part of the course at Shady Oaks Country Club, Hogan would spend hours hitting balls and Vasquez would retrieve them. There, and over the course of their twenty-year friendship, Hogan taught Jody the mechanics of his famous swing and shared his thoughts on playing, practicing, and course management—unknowingly revealing much about his character, values, and beliefs, and the events that shaped them. In Afternoons with Mr. Hogan , Jody Vasquez shares dozens of stories about Hogan, from the way he practiced, selected his clubs, and interacted with other star players to his little-known humor and generosity. Combining the gentle insight of Tom Kite’s A Fairway to Heaven (which recalls Kite’s golf education under Harvey Penick) with the sage perspective of Penick’s own Little Red Book , Vasquez’s tribute is funny, poignant, and full of advice for golfers of all levels. more...

Price: $15.00

One man’s quest to uncover the roots of his family’s obsession with golf—a journey that takes him to his ancestral home in Ireland, to Scotland, and to the American heartland. John Garrity is well known in the golf world for his writing for Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine, and on Golf.com. In this new book, Garrity travels to the remote corner of Ireland from which his great-grandfather left for America, now home to a majestic golf course. There he discovers why local farmers spent seven years carving the course out of unforgiving terrain, using only rakes and spades for their work. From there, he visits Musselburgh, Scotland, where his maternal ancestors played golf before the first thirteen rules of the game were written there in 1774, and to Wisconsin’s St. Croix River Valley, where his father learned the Ancient Game. Part memoir, part travelogue, and all golf, this book is for the enthusiast, the casual fan, or just the curious. The story of how golf altered three small-town landscapes and forever changed one family will captivate readers and inspire them to find life’s greatest treasures in their own family tree. more...

Price: $24.95

PGA stars such as Jay Haas, Craig Stadler, Peter Jacobsen, and Darren Clarke have all sought advice from fellow pro Stan Utley about their putting, and have gone on to such immediate success on the green that Utley has become the most in-demand teacher in the game. Now, in The Art of Putting he outlines his unique approach to putting for golfers of all skill levels. In a welcome change from mechanistic and overly-complex putting “systems,” Utley breaks down the putting stroke to a simple, natural motion, revealing a straightforward method for learning this sure, repeatable stroke. As he guides you through the fundamentals of the proper grip, posture, alignment, and swing, Utley will overhaul and improve your stroke by putting feel back into your game. This definitive book also provides:. • A complete primer on club design, with tips for finding the putter most in tune with the nuances of your swing. • A guide to the sensory aspects of a good putt, from grip pressure to impact response to the way a putt should sound. • Simple steps for reading greens accurately, every time. • Drills to commit your putting stroke to muscle memory and overcome the tics that can knock your putts off line. • Cures for the mental hurdles you’ll face on the short grass. more...

Price: $25.00

The hottest instructor in golf ("Sports Illustrated") takes on old-school gurus with a far more accessible, intuitive, and innovative approach to those essential chip shots, pitches, and bunker rescues. b&w photos throughout. 8-page color insert. more...

Price: $25.00

For more than forty-five years, Golf Magazine has attracted the best instructors in the sport. Now, Golf Magazine brings together its Top 100 Teachers to offer quick, essential tips -- only one page long and each with its own illustrative photo -- to help you save strokes the very next time you play. Every golfer knows that approach shots often expose a player's inconsistency -- and that no two holes ever play the same. In this book, such renowned teachers as Kent Cayce, Rick Martino, and Jim Flick help you size up and attack your long shots. This book spans every aspect of iron play and the long game with professional-grade help you can put into play now. Try a tip. You'll be playing Better By Saturday. more...

Price: $9.99