I'm new to golf so I have both the thrill of learning and the frustration of being a beginner. I watched a lot of golfing channels to get ready for my first season in a local league, and played with my friends as much as I could to practice. And I exhausted every golfer around me asking for recommendations and any tribal wisdom they could impart. One book that kept coming up was this tiny book of advice from golfing legend Ben Hogan.
It's hard to imagine that you could learn something as complicated as the golf swing from a book, but it did help. Hogan reviews his principles of a solid swing: grip, stance and posture, the first part of the swing, and the second part of the swing. I got the most out of the grip chapter and the placement of the feet. I expect I'll read this little book more than once, coming back to it as I - hopefully - improve my game.
I liked Hogan's style - it had that encouraging style that good teachers use when they are trying to impart their wisdom in a conversational, accessible way. The wisdom that comes from experience, from thousands of golf swings, could be too ephemeral to put into a book, even with the killer illustrations by Anthony Rivielli, but Hogan believes in us. He believes it is a thing that can be learned and constantly improved upon.
Of all the golfers who played every week, I came in DFL. But that didn't matter at all. I gained some XP, approached every week with a student-mind, and got a little better even if my score didn't show it. I played with a great group of guys, who were patient and super-encouraging. Already looking forward to next year.
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