Essential Golf

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Summary: This Book Nails Down the TRUE Fundamentals of Golf
Review: After playing the game for over 30 years and having had instruction from 5 of Golf Magazine's top 100 teachers, I'm impressed with John Dunigan's grasp of the TRUE fundamentals of the game. He strips away the unnecessary and scientifically unsound (unproven) jargon of many other so-called "name" pros and focuses on the basics - proper posture, correct pivot, precise swing plane, proper release, stable body movements, and short game technique/strategy. Great job John!

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Summary: Great learning tool for the weekend golfer
Review: As a person who loves to play golf but cannot get out to play but once or twice a month, this book provides great instruction to help me monitor my own game.

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Summary: Great beginner book
Review: John Dunigan's Essential Golf is a complete introduction to the sport and teaches the reader not only what to learn about golf, but how to best go about learning it. Dunigan provides a clear and illustrated explanation of the key and essential elements of the game including putting, chipping, pitching, the full swing, ball flight, and more. Essential Golf is enhanced with drills and more than 260 photos showing the reader clearly and informatively what they must do in each golfing circumstance in order to play the game well. A "must" for all novice golfers, Essential Golf has much of value to recommend it to those who have been away from the game and are returning to it, as well as to anyone seeking to improve their performance on the golf course.

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Summary: great golf book that more people should read
Review: last Sunday I finished reading a book on how the mind/body best learn how to perform complicated physical tasks like the golf swing (btw, I won't name this other book as I hate to see people using Amazon reviews to plug other books). but anyway, it said it's best to first focus on ensuring you're doing the proper physical movements. don't worry on results such as where the ball goes. keep practicing the proper mechanics, and eventually the brain will allow you to essentially do this almost on auto-pilot. once you reach that point (often referred to as "muscle memory"), only then is the time to worry about results such as making clean contact; having a smooth, powerful swing, etc. this book also talked about the concept of "flow" (which is well-documented in other books), and said it's most enjoyable to build up proficiency by taking on challenges that progress in difficulty as you get more and more skilled at what you're doing.

so on Sunday I decided that's how I'd try to improve my golf game. and then on Monday I received "Essential Golf" in the mail from Amazon. I'm glad to say that Dunigan's book is exactly what I was hoping for, esp. with this emphasis on learning proper mechanics (get your swing videotaped!), practicing new skills without a ball first to make learning easier, avoiding concern about ball flight when the ball is first introduced in learning something new, and emphasizing drills to speed learning and keep things fresh.

Dunigan's book says there is no secret to quickly developing a great golf game. he writes the best way to do this is by learning the right things the right way, and he gives clear instruction on how to do this. I wish I came across this book sooner.