Harby Male. Hong Kong

Let's face it, every golfer will like to bomb a long, straight drive 300 yards to the fairway...but for a lot of us (excluding cyber golfers and a few elite amateurs) that remain to be a distant dream

I realise my physical limit right from the start, so even in my wildest dream I didn't think of 300 yards - actually if I can achieve 240+ consistently the game will be much more gratifying to me. Needless to say, I'm in constant search of the right book to get me the perfect swing. I'll try to cover them one by one, but today starts with 'Swing like a Pro'.

I accidentally bumped into this book while browsing Amzon - of course while searching book books otherwise what in the heck do you think I'll run into it!

Again this book is written by a scientist, Ralph Mann, who claimed to have spent 17 yrs in the lab analysing the swings of some 100 professional golfers (incl Jack nicklaus, Greg Norman, Davis Love III etc) and developed a model golf swing for us amateurs. Is the book useful? Yes indeed - I think it's very good for beginners. It's an easy read, and the book splits a typical swing into several key components:
* Grip

* Setup

*Backswing

* Transition

* Top of the Swing

*Downswing

* Impact

*Follow through

* Timing and Tempo

Each section is aided with good graphical illustration on model swing and some good drills. The chapter on Transition is among the best and quite illuminating.

It won't turn you into a pro overnight, but the author certainly know how to teach golf. It deserves a 5-star ratings.

We all know how critical short game is to the ultimate golf score, yet most of us didn't spare enough time practising it. Here comes a book that promises to help...

A few years back Dave Pelz was the undisputed short game guru. He still is, but recently Stan Utley is building up solid credentials among tour players. These two guys have totally different style. Dave being a NASA scentist loves to dwell on statistics use hard data to support his theory. Stan however, pitches to the readers with his own resume as he used to be a tour player himself.

I've reviewed Stan's earlier book on putting technique, but wasn't quite impressed. (RIGHT CLICK and select OPEN in NEW WINDOW)

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/harby-golf/article?mid=88

This book is different.

It has a convincing storyline to start with. Stan's short game book appealed to me coz he managed to survive and won quite a few tournaments, even with he only averaged 240-250 yards off the tee!!! That's a stunningly low figure for tour player! Yet Stan compensated by his miraculous short game (plus putting of course)!

So this book is one that teaches you how to save your score. It's a pretty easy read - in 150 pages Stan walks us through the basics of short game, equipment selection, art of chipping, pitching and sand play. In particular I love his section on sand play - this is simply the best book out there that gives a fresh, and yet simple coverage on bunker play. Frankly just this 15-page section worths every penny of the price! For last few games I had the chance practising the newly acquired bunker shots on course - and the result has been amzing! I won't lie and say it worked 100% of the time, but the result has been very good so far. Better still, I almost kind of look forward to playing bunker shots!!! What a confidence booster!!!

There is another chapter dedicated to trouble shots - e.g. playing out of deep rough, divot, or buried lie in the bunker, etc. Very handy a la carte menu!

Chapter 9 provides some good drills - I haven't quite finished but most of them are quite practical and should bring some results given some dedication of time.

All in all, a great book that I'll recommend without hesitation. Won't be surprised in a few years time this goes down to be one of the most popular short game book, ever!

The author, Tom Coyne, was well known for his first golf book ‘a gentleman’s game’ which has been adapted into a film a few years back.

It’s actually this book’s sub-text that caught my attention - An obsessed golfer’s quest to play with the pros. I’ll save the description by quoting from wikipedia on this book…

QUOTE

Paper Tiger is a true story about Tom Coyne's journey into the world of professional golf. Coyne's odyssee would include leaving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to live in Florida. Coyne would enlist the help of swing doctor Dr. Jim Suttie and go through rigorous weight training in preparation. Coyne would also seek sports psycholigist Doctor Robert Winters to help fulfill his dream. Coyne would go from a 15 handicap to .... Coyne would play numerous mini-tour events, including a Nationwide Tour event, and play against teenage golfing phenomenon Michelle Wie in a Public Links qualifier.

UNQUOTE

Reading through 320-page would have been a huge undertaking for me in other occasions, but I had to say for a golf junky like me this one is a real page-turner. The ultimate target for me is to break 90. Tom Croyne has scores hovering around 80-90 and is trying to bring his game to a level to pass the PGA Tour’s qualification school. Most golfers will know while it's extremely difficult to convert a 15 handicapper within a year to a scratch player as Tom aspires...

I can see a lot of ‘crazy parallels’ that I resonate with the author. Ever since starting this blog, I’ve been religiously recorded the scores of every single game; looking for coaching to improve my swing; absorbing in a myriad of DVDs and books to look for the magic formula to shave some strokes. Tom does all of these, except with more tenancity and intensity – who in the world will quit his career and family (or to be precise, his girl friend), move to live in another city, and for a whole year just to improve his game?! This guy has a wild dream ! Will he succeed or not at the end? Best to keep the suspense here

The book is fun to read, not mainly because it’s a true tale of an avid young golfer, but also the author presents it well with a humorous tone. There are more than a few occasions that I couldn’t help breaking into laughters with Tom’s hilarious portraits of the events and people around him (incl his golfing buddy, and adorable girl friend who double hat as his caddie at times)

Haven't updated my blog over last week or so for good reason - as I was busy absorbed in two golf books in parallel Except this time I'm not reading books on improving golf swings or short game or putting or even mental game. These two books are both golf 'fictions' - or shall I say, real golf stories...

Here comes the review for the first book - The Scorecard always lies.

The sub-title for this book is 'a year behind the scenes on the PGA Tour'. The author, Chris Lewis, is a golf correspondent at Sports Illustrate. In 14 chapters, Chris revealed some behind-the-scenes stories of PGA tour in 2006. Among those he covered Michelle Wie's game with Camilo Villegas, Phil Mickelson's heart breaking moment at the US Open (remember his most quoted line last year of 'I'm such an idiot'?), as well Tiger Woods' battle with his father's death, and his emotional win at British Open and subsequent PGA wins. Yes if you're an avid golfers, you'll have learnt about all these events and the results - but what I find most intriguing is that this book goes beyond the hard facts and scorecard numbers, and drilled into the personal life of those golfers (though not in a typical paparazzi way of HK's media). You really get to know the players a lot better - and I find it more fun now watching some of the golfers on TV. For instance, I wasn't aware that some tour players actually would do bible study the night before they teed-off; that Phil Mickelson is one of the 'hated' figures while Vijay Singh is among the favorite, and so and so forth....

Overall a very entertaining book!

Never heard of the author Nick Bradley? He used to be the coach for Justin Rose who was the runner up for this year's Masters, along with Tiger Woods...

I bought this book in Singapore during a business trip. As the title suggests, it's a book about golf swing. In My view this book is probably the most reader friendly golf books out there. There are a lot of pictures to illustrate the swing mechanics...

In some pictures you can even see the player's skeletons and bones!

Or how about loading a pair of springs on your legs It obviously helps the readers who like to see how the action is performed visually.

Gimmicks aside, I also like Nick's innovative teaching approach. He dissects the golf swing into 7 components:

1. The Grip (guess I don't need to explain what it is, right?)

2. The geometry of the set-up - building stability

3. Groundforce Dynamics - stress the importance of legs

4. Synchronicity - how to let the whole body working in syn

5. Swing Plane

6. Proper release to fire into the balls

7. Dance with the target - after all the theory it's time to switch off the mind and just enjoy the game! Some tips on pre-shot routine too

There is no rocket science embedded in this book - but Nick manages to articulate his thoughts very clear, and the drills are also practical and easy to work with. The best part is at the end he includes a 10-page summary of his teaching - this could come handy when I reviewed the book from time to time

I put this book on par with my other favorite, Swing like a Pro (see separate review). Key difference is that Swing like a Pro is more technical (and sometimes require a bit of patience), and this one is a very good starting point for first swing book.

(For more photos pls RIGHT CLICK the following link and OPEN A NEW WINDOW to access my golf blog)
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/harby-golf/article?mid=136)

When I first picked up golf, I spent quite a bit of time looking for the best books/ dvd/ web resources on technical aspects to improve my swings. Since last year I started to look around for books on course management. And this one caught my attention...

It was written by Dave Pelz - the undisputed short game guru. He's also the short game coach for Phil Michelson, the No. 2 player in the world.

This book is rather pricey, and the shipping charge is outrageous, but I still decided to buy it, as too advertising statments convince me:

1. Golfers play two to fives strokes better than their handicaps for most of each round they play.

2. They also have disaster holes mixed in, bringing their total scores back up to their handicap level.

This is so true for high-handicapper like me! For a while I scored around 110 even though I teed off from white tee and have some decent holes. But almost in every round I would run into a number of disaster holes with terrible scores like 9 or 10 (or once 12 for a par 3). Most of it was due to poor course management or trying to play heroic shots

This book didn't talk about swing mechnism. It also didn't try to avocate how to avoid getting into trouble, but instead, how to get out of trouble.

The 300-page book is long (that's Dave's style, unfortunately!), but well illustrated with pictures, so I find it quite an easy read. Most important of all, a lot of the tips are applicable in an given round - coz chances are an amateur wouldn't find it too difficult to get into all kinds of troubles after teeing off

And I did save quite a few shots after buying this one, and play more consistent golf.

(For more photos pls RIGHT CLICK the following link and select OPEN A NEW WINDOW to access review in my golf blog)
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/harby-golf/article?mid=431

Bought it couple of months ago when it was first released to improve my putting game, as I was attracted by raving review at Amazon and fancy commentaries such as 'developing the inner freedom to trust oneself and recognize self-imposed barriers', 'find the peace of mind that comes from letting go of mental chatter and self-judgment'...

Well, the book is basically about the 'mental' game of putting - so don't be surprised if you didn't find any coaching on putting mechanics and skills. Obviously some readers like his approach, but boy, do you really need 180 pages to walk through some concepts that could have been covered in 20 pages, max. It took me over a 3-month period to finish this book and while I like the occasional illuminating views and ideas, it's not an enjoyable read Also, some of his putting drills actually require the cooperation of another partner - frankly in HK's context it's not an easy task to cojole your golfing buddies to engage in the tedious putting drills...

Golf can be split into Power Game, Short Game (Pitching & Chiping), Putting and Mental Games (incl Course management). Unlike other sports, the weirdest thing about golf is that performing well in one aspect doesn't automatically make you a better player in other categories. To the majority of us, sometimes it's quite the opposite - i.e. a long hitter may be a poor putter... a perfect short game game doesn't immune from a outrageous slice at next tee if a golfer has a reasonable game on all 4 aspects, the odds are he/she would have been shooting 80s...

Of course I'm kind of special .......as I perform equally bad on all four categories!

Alright back to business. If I have to pick an area of the game whereby the beginner can quickly shave a few shots off the score card, putting got to be the one. Afterall it's not easy to develop a good swing in no time, but you'll see the results of short game quite soon....yet if you ask around not too many golfers bother to spend any time on the 'boring' part of the game in their practice...

After numerous 3-putts and sometimes disastraous 4-putts in my golfing game (40+ in a round), I've finally decided to take the medicine to spend a few quids on putting - invest in new putters, buying putting mats, books and dvds....

This book is one of the putting books I bought last year. Stan Utley used to be a tour pro and his short game/ putting skill was well known among his peers. He once scored 6 putts for a 9-hole competition (yes for the other 3 holes he simply chipped in) - in other words, this guy knows what he's talking about.

The book is an easy read and quite conversational. Stan covers equipment selecdtion, grip, mechanics, green reading and mental part of putting, etc. He also includes one chapter on how he fixes the faults of his professional students.

Compared with my other putting book (written by Dave Pelz which I'll cover if I get a chance later) this one appears a bit light in content, but certainly less daunting to typical readers.

The one aspect I don't like is that Stan advocates an inside-square-inside stroke mechanic (i.e. treat the putting stroke as a miniature of normal golf swing), as opposed to another school of thought, which is a straight-to-the-target-line, pendulum typed of stroke. He feels that such mechanic is more natural but frankly i find it more difficult to grasp.

Have I turned into a putting expert right after reading this book?No, no magic happens overnight - but my putting does improve gradually (not just by extracting tips from this book but also others)....down from a whopping 40+ to 36-38 (i know it's still a ridiculously high score for a lot of you but give me some more time, ok? )

My bad habit was to buy too many books but rarely finshed in one go, especially for fictions :) This book is one of the few exceptions and it's really a page-turner! I actually skipped a day's way to finish this book as I simply couldn't put it down. If you enjoy the movie by Tom Hanks, pls don't miss this book as it's miles better! On the other hand, if you're let down by the movie, you should definitely go for this book. If you've been to Paris, then this book can bring some of your fond memory back! All in all, one of the best fictions for last few years!

Don't know how many golfers out there are as crazy as I do , but thought I'll contribute a little by sharing my learning process here. Apart from learning log and on-course journal, will start to post reviews on golf books/ dvd/ programs/ learning aids.....

Don't know how many golfers out there are as crazy as I do , but thought I'll contribute a little by sharing my learning process here. Apart from learning log and on-course journal, will start to post reviews on golf books/ dvd/ programs/ learning aids.....

OK for the entree, so let's get started with a book on short game ...Yes I know every beginner/ golfer is in constant search of a 5-min-turn-you-into-Tiger-Wood s/Bubba Watson/John Daly swing book, but for most of us frankly short game is the most critical part of our game to lower the score significantly. A long drive gives you instant gratification (assuming it lands on the fairway and not slices out to the Mars), but the real game-changer (at least for beginner) is the short game...

Have you guys heard of Dave Pelz? He's touted as the real short-game guru - mainly less familiar to golfers in HK but some of you may be aware that he's the short game coach for Phil Mickelson...and Phil as we all know got a fantastic short game even before he met Dave 2 yrs ago....

Dave is not a touring pro...but instead a rocket scientist!!! So you either like him or hate him in reading through his stuffs. I bought Dave's "Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible' (from the Amazon 2 yrs back). If anything, this book really live up to the hype of being a 'Bible' - can you imagine someone devote 400 pages to talk about short game in golf! Yes he did, and obviously got quite a few 'crazy' readers (me included) to buy it...

Being a rocket scenitist, Dave is a hard-core believier of statistics. Before diving into the short game mechanics, he gave quite interesting (and convincing accounts) of the importance of short game. You know this guy is not simply bluffing... Basically his messages can be distilled into a few highlights:

a) short (finesse) game is more crtical than power game (yeah we all know that ...)

b) within 100 yards if you manage to put your ball within 6-8 feets off the pin, this would leave good one-put opportunity. Failing that you may drop shots. This is quite revealing to me...

c) make sense to carry 3 or even 4 wedges to get precise short game distances. I'm sold by his theory so now carry 3 wedges (52/56/60). You may wonder if it help - yes, I'm definitely far from a good player but after some practice, my game shows decent improvement...

d) Dave has introduced 3 swing positions in what he described as 7:30 position, 9 o'clock and 10:30 positions, to get precise distance of of each wedge. I'm sure some of you would have known this - but basically the 9:00 o'clock position means that your backswing stops when your left arm is parallel to the ground with right arm cock at 90 degree... Assuming you superimpose yourself on a big block with your back facing it - this mimics a 9 o'clock position. My description may sounds clumsy, but it's quite easy to understand when you read his pictorial illustration.... So,what's the big deal you'll say - the magic is that with some practice, you'll be able to get 3 consistent yardages for each wedge. If you carry 3 wedges, that will give you 3x4, i.e. 12 different yardages... isn't that powerful?!

Now, what's my take on this book? hmmmm, I will give it a 5 stars, but someone else may just give it a 2 stars... let me tell you why. My caveat is that, you can't really get the best out of this book unless you have a good short game practice area and/or a good range finder (which I'll cover in a separate review). Otherwise it's all theory....unfortunately in HK there aren't too many places whereby you can get precise short game yardage (i.e. 50-75) as most of the driving ranges cater for egocentric golfers who only care to practice their power game...

That being said, if you're really an avid golfer, I still think this book is worth a good bed-time read (you can at least use it as a pillow, given the thickness)

(To access my review on my golf blog, pls RIGHT CLICK the following link and select OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW)
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/harby-golf/article?mid=9