Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf

I’m brand new to playing golf, and was unsure where to start learning. I’m a self teacher, so my search always starts with a book. Did I just ver find one?! This is THE tome of golf wisdom. Ben Hogan is renowned as one of the greatest golfers of all time, and when he originally wrote these 5 essays in 1957, he turned the world into potential golfers. This book won’t teach you everything about golf, but everything about playing golf starts with the lessons contained. From the forward by fellow legend Lee Trevino, to the original artwork detailing each point, and the second half of the book with articles and interviews detailing Ben’s life and legacy, this is the first book every new golfer should read. I’m 1/4 through, and I’ve already found a few flaws in what I would have been practicing. While I’m sure it can’t replace lessons with a real teacher, if you’re like me and can easily apply what you read, this book will get your game off the ground.

I’m a relatively new golfer, but my husband is a fantastic golfer who has played his entire life. I decided to read this book after hearing it referenced on several golf podcasts referring to former pros who learned to play the game by adopting the advice of this book. It has stood the test of time! My husband was skeptical, especially since chapter one suggested he move from his interlocking grip to an overlap grip. He tried it and couldn’t believe the results in how he hit the ball. We are still working our way through it because you don’t want to move to fast when changing everything, we work one chapter at a time and give it time to feel natural before moving to the next! Would definitely recommend this to any golfer. If nothing else it’s interesting as he explains the why behind the movements.

This book is all any starting novice golfer will need for proper instructions on full swing. For short game, I will recommend Getting Up And Down by Tom Watson. I found numerous videos for tips in Youtube largely useless or misleading especially for the novice. To learn powerful and repeatable full swing, this book is best because it explains all the steps from the grip to downswing as one coherent system that is what Mr. Hogan refers to as chain actions. Having said that, this book elicits some questions, as well. For example, though Mr. Hogan devoted Chapter 2 to stance and posture, unexplicably he does not talk about how to address the ball in detail. In two other equally great books, Getting Up And Down by Tom Watson and Golf My Way by Jack Nicklaus, the authors emphasize address should reflect so called hitting geometry in which the hands are ahead of the ball location. The reader of this book can only guess what Mr. Hogan's thought might be on proper address from one of the illustrations in the book, where remarkably to me at least, the club is held almost perfectlly vertical (pg. 24)! I can confirm the same vertical address in numerous videos of him. Another example is the position of the grip at the top of backswing that he aptly refers to as the crossroad. He emphasizes in this book the left arm and grip should stay in the backswing plane which is a plane extending through the shoulders and the ball at address. This is a point I found very useful and follow. However, it is widely known that, as a player, his grip at the crossroad was far below this plane (shown in iconic Aug. 8, 1955 Life Magazine cover) and, as a matter of fact, one of the flattest of all PGA pros according to Jack Nicklaus. I wonder therefore whether his emphasis on supination (counter-clockwise rotation of the hands/wrists in the hitting area) is a way to compensate for his low top position. The starting golfers however should not mind this discrepancy. Instead they should focus on his teaching in the book to stay on the backswing plane and that will work nicely. All in all, I have no doubt this is the first book any starting golfers should read and refer to whenever questions arise as they practice full swing. They will benefit immeasurably.i P.S. Since I wrote my review two years ago, I have gained an additional insight on supination. I was baffled by the fact that some golfers did not underscore its impotance as much as Hogan did in this book and this is why. His grip, the famous Hogan grip, is essentially a fade grip and without conscious turn and control of his left hand, the face of the club will open at impact. If it is done properly however it will become a power source as the speed of the club head will increase by this turning. When it is combined with the right hand release, the result? Long and deadly straight ball to the target with slight fade at the end (Hogan's power fade) even for amateur golfers.

good read

I owned this book several years ago and sold it; it was too tedious for a beginner/novice. Now at least 10 years later, I have been taking lessons and looking at videos from several teachers (PurePoint, Consistant Golf, PerfomMax, Shawn Clement, etc.) who all seem to follow him very closely. The grip remains good even today. Posture is classic. The fundamentals of the backswing are ever so slightly different from modern teaching. The hip movements in the backswing have to be practiced as he advocates -- slightly sliding to the back then leading with them on the downswing. The downswing is closer to what the current long drive hitters advocate -- starting with the hips before the backswing is completed. If you can follow his instructions in conjunction with modern teaching, you can have a solid, repeating swing. His clear descriptions of how to hold your arms and place your elbows and keep them close have helped me begin to rid my slice. Some teachers will argue that some of his techniques are not the best, like lifting your left heel (righthanders) on the backswing which might produce different results as one can't control how much it lifts in quarter of inches. Reading the book is not easy, although the drawings help, as it is written in a run-on almost rambling manner laced with lengthy paragraphs in all capital letters. This is the reason I give the book a "4." One has to extract the instruction. Fortunately, it is a short book with basically one chapter for each lesson. He suggests practicing each lesson before moving on. I recommend this as it easier to read one lesson at a time. Rereading is not a bad idea either. One of the more confusing elements is his description of the swing place as a pane of glass with a hole in the center for your head. It is not an easy idea to comprehend. I have had instructors refer to this as if the plane were parallel to the ground as in a baseball swing! A pure beginner should start somewhere else and the come back to this to cleanup and strengthen. Any one who wants to read this book should google for "Hogan's swing" for a great many examples of just how he did it as well as a number of videos of instructors trying to find his "secret!" Overall, not a bad role model for any one.

A classic with extras.

This book has been very helpful

A classic. Painstakingly takes you through the essentials of hitting a golf ball. Starts with the grip and proceeds to the set up, backswing, and forward swing. Good diagrams. Has helped my game.

THE one and only Golf instruction book which every golfer should read and digest. Magnificent drawings of position required for grip, muscles of body used etc. Don’t bother with any other book, written by probably the worlds best golfer, then and even today. Hogan was an incredible man.

Purchased this for my Husband as he was wanting it for tips in his golfing. He has ready it top to bottom and front to back over and over again. He is happy with this book

５０年前以上に父親が海外転勤時に買ったこの本がもうボロボロになってしまって補充の為に買いました。昔も今も共通のする部分があるのがすごいですね。ゴルフがうまくなりたい人だけではなく、歴史書としても一度読んでみても面白いかと思います。和訳も出てます。おすすめです！

This Five Lessons give a clear understanding of the fundamentals of the golf stroke. I am playing regular during 20 years And each year I have a few lessons to get my faults which appear during the season corrected Never have I got such a clear explanation of these fundamentals

De formation ingénieur, j'ai besoin de comprendre pour faire. Dans ce livre, M. Ben HOGAN nous livre le résultat d'années d'expérimentation pour aider le golfeur à construire un swing qui peut être reproduit encore et encore. En lisant, ça parait simple mais il faut s'entrainer encore et encore pour éliminer les vieilles habitudes et bien intégrer les conseils de ce livre. Les nouvelles technologies nous aident, à travers des vidéos au ralenti 120 ips, à appliquer ses conseils. Il reste ensuite à maîtriser ses pensées pour pouvoir exploiter pleinement ce swing et le livre de Bob Rotella, Golf is not a game of perfect est un bon complément pour travailler le mental,