Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf

Customer Reviews

greatest instructional book ever written on any subject

I must confess, after reading numerous articles, looking at new clubs, considering new paractice techniques, I was ready to just give up. I was given this book by a friend and read it in two days, and my swing improved 50%. Ben Hogan has quietly written the secret to playing golf. If you read this book and practice these fundamental techniques you will be a better golfer.

Share this only with friends you wouldn't mind beating you on the course.

THE Book on the Classic Golf Swing

It's true. Leadbetter and McClain have both found problems with Hogan's Five Lessons, especially for those who do not share his physique or his typical swing faults. Mann's Swing Like a Pro describes the modern golf swing much better, and the LAWS of the Golf Swing describes how golfers of different physical styles tend to strike the ball most effectively.

Still, this book is a classic that every golfer should own.

By today's standards Hogan was short, wiry, with unusually powerful shoulders and arms. What Leadbetter and McClain do not mention is that people who share Hogan's physique (like me) can pretty much take every word as gospel. If you have the same sort of physique and follow everything in this book, from the grip and stance to the backswing, the backstroke and swing planes, driving with the hips, and supinating the left wrist through impact, then you will get a very impressive swing, especially with irons. Woods may take a little adjustment, and for the short game and putting see Dave Pelz's Bibles. For pure ball striking, this is a perfect description of the classic golf swing.

I've been told that though Hogan was a deep thinker on the subject of the full swing, that he was the best putter on tour during his winning years. It's too bad he didn't put his thoughts on putting down on paper, because if he had, it would be THE classic on that topic too.

Great book - If you've got a Hook

This classic is an exceptional, readable, and all-encompassing study of the golf swing. I learned much about my swing studying this book. The only problem I encountered was none of the information was very relavant to me or the vast majority of golfers who suffer from a slice.

Ben Hogan had a strong hook and much of this book includes his corrections to overcome this deficit and straighten out his swing. However, for the slicer, these corrections do the opposite - my slice was worse than ever after following Hogan's advice and I couldn't correct it.

An excellent book, for starters or as a follow-on to Hogan's "Five Lessons", is Leadbetter's "The Fundamentals of Hogan". Leadbetter reviews the Hogan swing, then tells why it doesn't work for most (Hogan was double-jointed, Hogan was correcting his hook, etc.) and what you should really do. After Leadbetter, I did straighten out my swing.

Both books break the swing down into 5 parts: Grip, Stance, Backswing, Downswing, Summary.

While Hogan's book was groundbreaking and certainly deserves a read, if you want to learn a basic swing, Leadbetter's is far more encompassing and just as readable.