Bottom of the Bag

by Hack Alexander

What happened? Just a couple months ago I was caught up on all my golf reading, then another flood of new books came through the door. There were so many I forgot to practice my putting stroke on the living room carpet during all those cold nights. I was too busy rifling through the following standout tomes from the various corners of the golf universe. Pull up a chair and enjoy.

Jack Nicklaus: Memories and Mementos from Golf’s Golden Bear
by Jack Nicklaus | Stewart, Tabori and Chang

Just this winter FG paid due tribute to Jack the Designer, but we would’ve probably gone further in our praise had we had this handsome coffee table book in hand. Alas, it arrived right after deadline. So I took the liberty of digging in and came away with a new appreciation of the 20th century’s greatest player. Jack himself gives us a well-rounded and beautifully illustrated tour of his professional and private lives, dating back to his earliest days with a club in his hand right up through his final appearance at St. Andrews a couple years ago. But what really sets this book apart are replicas of 10 “collectibles” that live in little pockets pasted right onto the pages, to be removed, admired and replaced: Notes from everyone from Tiger Woods and Greg Norman to Frank Sinatra and recently departed Gerald Ford (plus teen Nicklaus’ own acceptance letter to Augusta National to play in his first Masters); various milestone scorecards, logo patches, golf course plans and practice tips; and other goodies that help longtime fans and newbies get into the man’s skin and psyche like never before. If this is Jack’s published swan song, who better to do the honors than the man himself?

The Secrets of Hogan’s Swing
by Tom Bertrand with Printer Bowler | Wiley
Genius, grinder or both? Find out in the latest in a long line of tomes circling the mystique of an enigmatic character and “wee” giant. Bertrand and Bowler manage to get beyond Hogan’s “digging in the dirt” obfuscation to dissect his flawless swing, mostly through the revelations of former PGA Tour player John Schlee, one of the few living souls to actually receive instrucion from Hogan himself. The result is a readable, detailed dissertation on perhaps the most-copied golf swing in history, loaded with insights and illuminations that manage to make the man from Texas into even more of a legendary character.

A Disorderly Compendium of Golf
by Lorne Rubenstein and Jeff Neuman | Workman Publishing
The most addictive golf book of the year, packed with trivia both mainstream and out of bounds, right down to the contents of Augusta’s pimento cheese sandwich and the best lines from Caddyshack. Every page just jumps out at you with another near-forgotten or never-before-realized tidit from golf’s rich past, a statistic that’s heretefore gone without official publication or just a fun factoid that will stick in your memory from now on. Rubenstein and Neuman keep the research thorough without getting dry. Our favorite page ponderance: Is Bob Dylan really a golfer?

Playing A Round with the Little Pro
by Eddie Merrins with Mike Purkey
Bel-Air Country Club’s longtime pro weaves tips with tales in a charming memoir from one of California golf’s good guys.

The Plane Truth for Golfers Masters Class
by Jim Hardy with John Andrisiani | McGraw-Hill
In his follow-up to one of the most talked-about instruction books in recent memory, Texas teacher and course designer Hardy shows how to put his one- or two-plane swing theory into perfect practice. Includes more than 200 instructional photos and a foreword by Peter Jacobsen, Hardy’s design buddy.