Customer Reviews

The Fundamentals of Hogan

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Transaction was fast and painless from purchase to delivery. Product in immaculate condition; nice to have many seller's to pick from.

This book clearly deserves more than five stars. It will be an essential resource on the full golf swing for all top-flight pros, instructors, and average golfers who dream of breaking 80.

My best score on a championship 18 hole course is 83. So I am part of the prime market for this book. I will share with you what I learned from the book in my quest for a slightly lower score.

David Leadbetter is one of our most talented teaching pros. If you are like me, you are accustomed to seeing him on television so his ideas will seem familiar.

Mr. Leadbetter had a great resource to start with. This book is an update of Ben Hogan's famous book: Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf that was originally published as five articles in Sports Illustrated in 1957. The book, illustrated with drawings by Anthony Rivielli, has been a primary resource for those who wanted to understand the pure ball-striking ability of Ben Hogan. And Mr. Leadbetter was much aided by the recent discovery of the photographs taken by Mr. Rivielli, upon which the drawings were based. Eighty-five new photographs of Ben Hogan are included, which were mostly designed to be illustrative of the material in Five Lessons. So, if all you got were the new photographs, you would be way ahead of where anyone has been before now.

The first part of each of the sections in the book (The Hands, Addressing the Ball, Backswing, Downswing, and Summary and Concluding Thoughts) is there to summarize Mr. Hogan's original message, along with the proper illustrations and captions.

In the second part of the section, Mr. Leadbetter goes on to describe why Mr. Hogan achieved the results he did with his approach, and what some of the problems are that that approach could present for other players. This section was fascinating. Mr. Hogan had a tendency to hit wild hook shots, and many of his adjustments were to open the club face in order to make solid contact. He had several unusual physical characteristics, including very large and strong hands and arms that presented special opportunities and challenges. This discussion basically contradicts Mr. Hogan's advice in many areas, and points out places where Mr. Hogan's demonstrations of his own style were inaccurate versus what shows in films from the same era.

Finally, Mr. Leadbetter takes what the average golfer can use from Mr. Hogan, and adds other elements that are complementary. You will find this material the most familiar to you. It is well done though, because it addresses ways to compensate for current weaknesses in your game.

My own lessons from reading the book related to developing a much better understanding the objective one is looking for from a good grip, more ways to adjust the grip than I had ever dreamed of, helpful ideas about how to take the grip properly, how stance affects timing and club head direction, and mental concepts to use in creating better timing and coordination. I think I learned more about these mechanics as variables than I had learned in 24 years of playing the game (and taking more than a few lessons). There is also a lot of good material in here about how to practice, and the value of watching videos of your swing. Most importantly, the book reinforced what I am doing right and made me sensitive to what I need to work on.

By the way, breaking 80 requires being as good a putter and short game player as you possibly can be. For those subjects, you need Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible and Dave Pelz's Putting Bible (you can read my reviews of each on Amazon.com). Those will get you under 80 faster than this book will . . . because there are so many more short game shots for average golfers than full swing shots.

The main weakness of the book is that Mr. Leadbetter does like to provide lots of detail. Usually, this is helpful. Sometimes, his material for average golfers is a little confusing to me. You may understand it just fine, but I cannot accurately anticipate your reaction.

After you finish reading this wonderful book, I urge you to select one aspect of your full swing where you could benefit from a change. Then use the ideas and methods here to start to make that change. After you are successful, pick a second area and continue the process. Now you have the makings of a true Ben Hogan approach, because that's exactly what he did.

Hit 'em straight and long!

Three and a half years ago I had the immense good fortune to act as an agent in the sale of the entire contents of the estate of the late Anthony Ravielli. He was the pre eminent golf illustrator of the second half of the 20th Century. I was able to see a vast amount of original drawings and paintings by Ravielli. But what struck me more was the photography. There were literally thousands of vintage photos, as well as negatives, taken by Ravielli, as well as many other famous photographers. I decided to buy the photographs, negatives, and with them all rights to anything that was done by Ravielli. The most interesting items were a group of vintage prints of Hogan in his dress whites, and I also found a group of B+W negatives, which were the original negatives for the vintage prints in the lot. I really was just considering them as old photographs, and was going to reproduce some for sale in print form. In my many hours, actually days, of going through this lot, and studying the images, I noticed a very small B+W print of Hogan with his hands on his hips looking directly at the camera. I knew it looked like one of the illustrations within The Five Lessons. I found the image in the book, and upon close examination, found it to be identical. And furthermore, each image within the famous Five Lessons was actually directly based on the negatives which I had bought. I can't describe the feeling that went through me when I realized what I had found. I am an avid golfer, and always knew about the Five Lessons by Ben Hogan. But, in my dealing with the Ravielli lot, I learned much more. As I read the Fundamentals of Hogan by David Leadbetter, I am still struck by seeing all the photos laid out in proper order, and examined and critiqued by the leading instructor of our time. This book is a great combination of two of the most insightful, and analytical minds in golf. Careful reading will provide the reader with detailed knowledge of what does, and does not occur during a proper golf swing. And, you have to love those photos.

As a teaching professional for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy, I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of David's new book. David is an inovator and very creative, and he is always in search of new ideas that will enhance his philosophy of teaching. After obtaining photos of Hogan, which were the actual photos from Hogan's great instruction book, David carefully describes in detail Hogan's mechanics and breaks them down into ways no one else can. David is a true genius, and this is why he is and will remain on top of the instructional world. Just to point out a few areas, you will find very interesting details on Hogan's "transition" and his "release" which were very informative. This book will help you understand why Hogan was known as the best ball striker of all time.

Great instructional piece. Leadbetter adds a great deal to the original Hogan work. His ability to explain why certain things worked for Hogan, but may not produce similar results for different types of golfers is of great import. A MUST have for any student of the game.