The Fundamentals of Hogan (Hardcover)

by David Leadbetter (Author), Lorne Rubenstein (Author) "Ben Hogan said, "good golf begins with a good grip..." (more)
Key Phrases: Five Lessons, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In the late 1950s, the great Ben Hogan consolidated his considerable knowledge of the golf swing into a small volume called Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. Nearly half a century later, it remains the cornerstone of every intrepid hacker's instructional library, and one of the bestselling sports books of all time. But there was always something missing from its pages: photos. As marvelous as artist Anthony Ravielli's accompanying drawings of Hogan were, they weren't the same as seeing the Wee Icemon himself in action.

Surprise! Ravielli modeled those drawings on several rolls of film he took of Hogan, and those photos, recently discovered, are the heart of The Fundamentals of Hogan. For golfers, they are like finding a piece of the true cross; there has never been a more perfect swing than Bantam Ben's. If some of the pictures in Fundamentals are just explanatory poses--Hogan gripping the club, Hogan standing at address--and the majority of the swing sequences are actually not true sequences at all but, given the technology of the time, individually posed photos at appropriate intervals of the swing, no matter. They convey what they need to, providing a closer glimpse of the master's mastery.

Swing guru David Leadbetter tees up the accompanying text, analyzing Hogan's swing, parsing Hogan's swing theories, and adapting what Hogan knew to fit the rest of us. Leadbetter knows most of us can't possibly re-create the effortless power of Hogan's fluidity, but that doesn't mean we can't incorporate bits of Hogan's technique into our own herky-jerky hacks. Like Hogan, Leadbetter is obsessed with golf's mechanics, and while Hogan managed to breeze through Five Lessons with the help of the splendid writer Herbert Warren Wind, Leadbetter often gets mired in the kinds of technicalities that lead to the "paralysis by analysis" that plagues over-thinkers when they step up to the ball. Still, the team of Hogan and Leadbetter makes a twosome you can't help but learn from if you're willing to pay attention. --Jeff Silverman

From Booklist
Ben Hogan's Five Lessons (1957) remains one of the most influential golf instructionals ever published. Anthony Ravielli's drawings illustrated the original work, but he also took numerous photographs of Hogan's swing; now those photos have been rediscovered and combined with text by contemporary teaching legend Leadbetter. The result is a kind of updating of the classic Hogan swing philosophy, with Leadbetter using the photos to analyze Hogan's theories. The idea of a book showing where the immortal Hogan went wrong may well offend purists. It shouldn't. What Leadbetter does here is put Hogan's words in a contemporary context, taking into account not only modern equipment but also, more importantly, the needs of the average golfer. Applied literally by middle to high handicappers, Hogan's swing secrets, Leadbetter argues persuasively, might very well produce disaster rather than improvement. Still, despite the good sense Leadbetter makes throughout, many readers will find themselves wishing Hogan had an opportunity to answer back. For anyone interested in the complex architecture of the golf swing, Leadbetter on Hogan makes essential reading. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385502109
• ISBN-13: 978-0385502108
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,414 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Hogan . . . Updated and Adapted by Leadbetter, December 19, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This book clearly deserves more than five stars. It will be an essential resource on the full golf swing for all top-flight pros, instructors, and average golfers who dream of breaking 80.

My best score on a championship 18 hole course is 83. So I am part of the prime market for this book. I will share with you what I learned from the book in my quest for a slightly lower score.

David Leadbetter is one of our most talented teaching pros. If you are like me, you are accustomed to seeing him on television so his ideas will seem familiar.

Mr. Leadbetter had a great resource to start with. This book is an update of Ben Hogan's famous book: Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf that was originally published as five articles in Sports Illustrated in 1957. The book, illustrated with drawings by Anthony Rivielli, has been a primary resource for those who wanted to understand the pure ball-striking ability of Ben Hogan. And Mr. Leadbetter was much aided by the recent discovery of the photographs taken by Mr. Rivielli, upon which the drawings were based. Eighty-five new photographs of Ben Hogan are included, which were mostly designed to be illustrative of the material in Five Lessons. So, if all you got were the new photographs, you would be way ahead of where anyone has been before now.

The first part of each of the sections in the book (The Hands, Addressing the Ball, Backswing, Downswing, and Summary and Concluding Thoughts) is there to summarize Mr. Hogan's original message, along with the proper illustrations and captions.

In the second part of the section, Mr. Leadbetter goes on to describe why Mr. Hogan achieved the results he did with his approach, and what some of the problems are that that approach could present for other players. This section was fascinating. Mr. Hogan had a tendency to hit wild hook shots, and many of his adjustments were to open the club face in order to make solid contact. He had several unusual physical characteristics, including very large and strong hands and arms that presented special opportunities and challenges. This discussion basically contradicts Mr. Hogan's advice in many areas, and points out places where Mr. Hogan's demonstrations of his own style were inaccurate versus what shows in films from the same era.

Finally, Mr. Leadbetter takes what the average golfer can use from Mr. Hogan, and adds other elements that are complementary. You will find this material the most familiar to you. It is well done though, because it addresses ways to compensate for current weaknesses in your game.

My own lessons from reading the book related to developing a much better understanding the objective one is looking for from a good grip, more ways to adjust the grip than I had ever dreamed of, helpful ideas about how to take the grip properly, how stance affects timing and club head direction, and mental concepts to use in creating better timing and coordination. I think I learned more about these mechanics as variables than I had learned in 24 years of playing the game (and taking more than a few lessons). There is also a lot of good material in here about how to practice, and the value of watching videos of your swing. Most importantly, the book reinforced what I am doing right and made me sensitive to what I need to work on.

By the way, breaking 80 requires being as good a putter and short game player as you possibly can be. For those subjects, you need Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible and Dave Pelz's Putting Bible (you can read my reviews of each on Amazon.com). Those will get you under 80 faster than this book will . . . because there are so many more short game shots for average golfers than full swing shots.

The main weakness of the book is that Mr. Leadbetter does like to provide lots of detail. Usually, this is helpful. Sometimes, his material for average golfers is a little confusing to me. You may understand it just fine, but I cannot accurately anticipate your reaction.

After you finish reading this wonderful book, I urge you to select one aspect of your full swing where you could benefit from a change. Then use the ideas and methods here to start to make that change. After you are successful, pick a second area and continue the process. Now you have the makings of a true Ben Hogan approach, because that's exactly what he did.

Hit 'em straight and long!

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finder of the Lost Photos, November 11, 2000

By	Brian McGrath (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

Three and a half years ago I had the immense good fortune to act as an agent in the sale of the entire contents of the estate of the late Anthony Ravielli. He was the pre eminent golf illustrator of the second half of the 20th Century. I was able to see a vast amount of original drawings and paintings by Ravielli. But what struck me more was the photography. There were literally thousands of vintage photos, as well as negatives, taken by Ravielli, as well as many other famous photographers. I decided to buy the photographs, negatives, and with them all rights to anything that was done by Ravielli. The most interesting items were a group of vintage prints of Hogan in his dress whites, and I also found a group of B+W negatives, which were the original negatives for the vintage prints in the lot. I really was just considering them as old photographs, and was going to reproduce some for sale in print form. In my many hours, actually days, of going through this lot, and studying the images, I noticed a very small B+W print of Hogan with his hands on his hips looking directly at the camera. I knew it looked like one of the illustrations within The Five Lessons. I found the image in the book, and upon close examination, found it to be identical. And furthermore, each image within the famous Five Lessons was actually directly based on the negatives which I had bought. I can't describe the feeling that went through me when I realized what I had found. I am an avid golfer, and always knew about the Five Lessons by Ben Hogan. But, in my dealing with the Ravielli lot, I learned much more. As I read the Fundamentals of Hogan by David Leadbetter, I am still struck by seeing all the photos laid out in proper order, and examined and critiqued by the leading instructor of our time. This book is a great combination of two of the most insightful, and analytical minds in golf. Careful reading will provide the reader with detailed knowledge of what does, and does not occur during a proper golf swing. And, you have to love those photos.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Photos Make All the Difference, August 28, 2003

By A Customer

In addition to the many details in the other reviews, I have a few brief points.

THE best aspect of this book are the black and white photos of Hogan that did NOT inspire the graphics in his book, Five Lessons. I remember reading Five Lessons as a teenager and taking Hogan's pointers very literally. The points about ball position (keeping the ball in one place, but adjusting your feet as you change clubs) and the insides of your arms pointing skyward really threw my game for a loop as a teenager. Watching the latter day pros and their technique (where they did NOT follow these points), however, made me realize that either Hogan had an incredibly unique swing or what he was teaching in his book just didn't make much sense today. As Leadbetter points out in his commentary, and as the new photos confirm (the ones taken when Hogan was actually swinging at/addressing the ball--NOT the ones where he stood still and displayed what he "thought" he was doing) Hogan didn't adhere to all of his "lessons"! It was very comforting to finally learn the truth about what Hogan was actually trying to portray in his book as explained by Leadbetter (thank you David!). If you are serious about improving your game, upon reading this and some careful review and study (the text can be a bit laborious at times) you should glean at least a few tidbits that will help you. What helped me the most (besides finally seeing the real photos) were the points about a shorter backswing (mine tended to get too long--like Daly's) and having equal grip pressure in both of your hands (I tended to let my right hand get loose).

All in all an excellent book that helps marry older and modern fundamentals of golf. Plus the vintage photos of Hogan make it a great coffe table book.