Golfer Review – Books
EVERY SHOT MUST HAVE A PURPOSE by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott, with Ron Sirak.
If you are looking for a golf instruction book that takes a more holistic approach, this is it. Pia Nilsson, a former coach of the Swedish National Golf Team, adopted her teaching methods to instill her players with a deeper will to win. She and teaching pro Lynn Marriott, both GFW contributors, have produced a revolutionary way to learn that they call GOLF 54.
(Some golfers claimed to have dropped 10 strokes after reading the book.) These lessons apply to
life as much as to golf. For example, Nilsson and Marriott advise readers to learn to control what they
can (attitude, diet, commitment) and leave the rest (weather, playing partners) to take care of itself.
THE UNPLAYABLE LIE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF WOMEN AND DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICAN GOLF by
Marcia Chambers.
This expose is a first-class book about golfers who refused to be treated as second-class citizens. Chambers, a GFW contributing editor and former New York Times reporter specializing in legal issues, documents the discriminatory policies sonic private clubs have had toward women. She puts current sexist policies into a historical context and describes what happens when women (and sometimes their husbands) dare to question the status quo: for example, fighting for weekend-morning tee times. This is not a relaxing read, but it’s an essential one.
FIVE LESSONS: THE MODERN FUNDAMENTALS OF GOLF by Ben Hogan, with Herbert Warren Wind. 
Nearly five decades before Nilsson and Marriott, Ben Hogan, one of histories greatest golf practitioners, enlisted Wind, one of histories greatest golf writers, to distill his years of training into five simple sessions. Hogan believed that all “average golfers are capable of building a repeating swing and breaking 80,” and his prescription are as accessible to women as it is to men.
Enhanced by the classic illustrations of Anthony Ravielli, which bring to life the body’s sinewy torque and release better than any photograph, the words and drawings imprint themselves on the psyche. Some hours after reading the chapter on the grip, you may find yourself grasping an imaginary club, the concise instructions still crystal clear in your mind.
