How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time [Paperback]

Tommy Armour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995

Tommy Armour's classic How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time provides timeless golf instruction on the following subjects:

* How to learn your best golf

* What can your best golf be?

* Taking you to the lesson tee

* How your clubs can help you

* The grip holds your swing together

* How to get ready to swing

* Footwork, the foundation of best golf

* The art of hitting with the hands

* The waggle, preliminary swing in miniature

* The pause that means good timing

* Assembling your game in good order

* Saving strokes with simple approach shots

* The fascinating, frustrating philosophy of putting

* The simple routine of an orderly golf shot

These classic bits of advice are accompanied by over four dozen two-color illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Harvey Penick Tommy Armour had a big bearing on my life and teaching -- I have used much of his wisdom, teaching and playing.

Jack Nicklaus Tommy Armour earned even more fame as a teacher than his fine playing record won for him. I'm not surprised that this book is one of the game's all-time best-sellers.

About the Author

Born In Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the University there, like all British boys of his generation Tommy Armour left school to fight in the First World War.

He joined the Royal Scots as a machine gunner and later became an officer in the then new branch of the service, the Tanks Corps. While serving with the tanks he was caught in a mustard gas attack and lost his eyesight, but later he regained sight in his right eye.

The winner of many amateur golf events in Europe as well as the French Open, Armour came to the United States soon after the war ended and turned professional in 1925. In 1927 he won the U.S. Open Championship and the Canadian Open. Subsequently he went on to win every major championship: the British Open; the P.G.A.; the Western; the Metropolitan; and too many cash-prize tournaments to attempt to list.

In 1929 he took over the post of golf professional at the Boca Raton Club, in Florida, where over the next quarter of a century his instruction ranged prom teaching duffers how to break 100 to brushing up the games of the top tournament professionals when they couldn't iron out their own difficulties. Armour always claimed that the instructional part of his golf career was the best -- the part he enjoyed the most.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684813793
• ISBN-13: 978-0684813790
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Complement to Hogans Work, September 11, 2000

By 

J. Hardy IV (Snohomish, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time (Paperback)

This is a helpful instructional book that could easily be bundled with Hogan's Five Lessons. Where Hogan's text is meticulously precise in its depiction of the mechanics of the golf swing, Armour's offering delves into the mental arena and probes the mindset behind the various aspects of the game. Copywrite 1953, its year of publication even mirrors that of Hogan's, but beyond that the contrasts are striking [granted Hogan's text started out as a series of SI articles]. Having worked through some personal golf issues with Hogan's book and after writing a review for that, I noticed Armour's under the `if you liked this book' link. I purchased it on a lark being obliquely familiar with Armour's professional and teaching career, and seeing the quote by Harvey Pennick on the cover. Armour's tone versus his contemporary is quite authoritative and at times almost condescending in his depiction of the `average' golfer and his urging to play within their limitations. He models the early chapters after a visit to his golf clinic in Florida, speaking always as the teacher and never a peer. It was his stated intention to produce a thin volume of the absolute minimized, efficient teachings about golf. This I believe he accomplished. The instruction would be good for a beginning golfer, there were a few tips scattered throughout for the long time player. Unfortunately, I didn't see too much new and fresh that I could take with me onto the course, perhaps because his themes have long been drilled into our heads by modern pros. The illustrations are nowhere near the quality and detail of the Hogan book. Ultimately I did get more out of the Hogan text, but Armour's was very interesting to `hear' his teaching methodology and his numerous references to players and tournaments of the 30's and 40's. Punctuating this timelessness, when I was talking to my father the other night I mentioned to him this was the latest golf book I was reading, to which he replied, "Yep, that's what I learned with 40 years ago." Recommended to be read along with Ben Hogan's `Five Lessons'.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book for the Occasional Golfer, June 18, 2000

By 

Robert Aldrich - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time (Paperback)

I must echo the sentiments of the other reviewers...this is the only golf instructional book recreational players will ever need. Armour gives you a few simple things to remember while you address the ball and take your swing that can eliminate many of the typical problems experienced by the occasional player.

For example, his suggestion that a right-hander imagine dragging his left knee behind the ball on the upswing and then swinging it back through the ball on the downswing was very effective in curing my problem of getting a proper hip turn.

The genius of the book is that the techniques Armour suggests are easy to remember while you are actually out there in the process of swinging the club. This book suggests many of the same principles described in Ben Hogan's books but I think they are laid out with greater simplicity and simple techniques that can correct common problems with grip, stance and swing are what I think average and beginning golfers like myself are looking for.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very dated but still worthwhile, January 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time (Paperback)

Bear in mind that this is a book originally published in the 1950s. It's widely regarded as an all-time classic, but it's now very dated. Armour was an excellent player (one of the great iron players of all time) and a superb teacher, but some of his theories are no longer in vogue. I can tell you that way back in the early 1960s this book, through Armour's focus on the hip turn, transformed me literally overnight from a beginner who sliced the ball to someone who has fought a hook for the last 40 years. I bought this updated edition strictly for its sentimental value, and I wouldn't foist it on someone who was serious about achieving his or maximum potential because a GREAT deal has been learned about the golf swing since this was written (and today's equipment demands a different sort of swing anyway). However, if you've played for awhile and just can't seem to get the hang of the golf swing, this book is so straightforward that it may be just what you need. You'll end up looking like Julius Boros rather than Tiger Woods, but odds are that'll be a major improvement if you're now shooting over 85. Armour was a transplanted Scot who was very eloquent, and this book is a pleasure to read for that reason alone. Some of his most basic wisdom ("THINK WHAT TO DO -- that's concentration in golf") still sticks with me every time I play. A ROUND OF GOLF WITH TOMMY ARMOUR, in which he steers his 90-shooting friend around the course in 79 by making him play within his limitations, is also excellent.