PutterZone – Best Putter Reviews
First off, before we delve into two new putting titles for the new golf season, let’s give kudos to Gotham Books for setting the pace in golf publishing.
On the putting front alone, Gotham has published books by Stan Utley, Dave Stockton, Dave Pelz, Michael Breed and others (it’s too bad they didn’t publish our book, Putter Perfection!). While many of Gotham’s golf books pertain to instruction, others cover golf history and appreciation, such as the upcoming book A Difficult Par by James R. Hansen, a biographical account of legendary course architect Roger Trent Jones Sr.
So, with our kudos complete, we preview the following two new books from Gotham:
Own Your Game by Dave Stockton
When we interviewed legendary golfer and short game instructor Dave Stockton, a few things hit the cutting room floor. One of them was an anecdote about how he took less than 15 seconds between setting the ball down, backing up, setting his stance and sinking a 15-foot putt to win the 1976 PGA Championship on the final hole. He said, “I knocked it dead in the hole, because I knew I was going to do it.”
So when Stockton writes a book whose subtitle is “How to Use Your Mind to Play Winning Golf,” he brings a ton of cred to the table.
Throughout the book, Stockton makes sure his lessons are relatable to the average golfer. For example, he writes, “It doesn’t matter if I’m teaching Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson or a 20-handicap executive at a one-day clinic. My goal is always the same: to get players to think more clearly and simply, and to use the skills they already have to improve their game.”
Another example: “I’m not here to give you a rah-rah speech about changing your attitude. I want to tell you about the real situations that all different kinds of player–from those on the PGA Tour to those at your club down the street–find themselves in, and the mental triggers that get you in trouble on the course but can also help you restore your mental and emotional balance.”
Dave Stockton’s Own Your Game is a great book for any golfer seeking practical and masterful advice on bringing his or her mental “A” game to the course.
Every Shot Counts by Mark Broadie
The title Every Shot Counts is wonderful, but the subtitle tells the full story: “Using the revolutionary strokes gained approach to improve your golf performance and strategy.”
In other words, this book begins as a mouthful, and doesn’t let up from there.
Packed with studies, stats and advice over 250 pages, Every Shot Counts probably isn’t for the casual golfer. It’s for the golfer who is ravenous for information in pursuit of any edge.
The book revolves around the new “strokes gained” putting stat that was adopted by the PGA Tour in 2011. But it covers the game from tee to green, imparting nuggets and “did you know” revelations that give a more holistic insight into golfing performance.
In many ways, it’s the polar opposite of Stockton’s homespun approach. If you’re the studious type who can follow sentences like, “The baseline curve in Figure 6.3 can be used to gauge whether an individual golfer is distance-challenged or accuracy-challenged compared with the average trend among amateur golfers,” then you will want to dive right in.
Hope you enjoyed our Own Your Game book review and Every Shot Counts book review, stay tuned for more as the golf season unfolds.
