From the Hearth: To date we've been guilty of a regrettable but in the main understandable bias. The surge of new books is hard to ignore but in quieter moments, given the choice; put it this way - one could selectively ignore everything after - pick a date - 1966, say, and have a very happy time indeed reading about golf.

Cognizant that writers since 1966 work hard to put food on their tables chronicling the game, we strive to play it down. Periodically, however, we'll step away from the swift moving current of recent releases to dip into still waters, older, deserving books that may have been missed. After all, a new book - to us - is still a new book, no matter when it was published, and the enjoyment and discovery no less satisfying. We start with a category of deserving older books, rather than one.

"And it fits perfectly inside a golf bag!"
A Monograph on Golf Paperbacks

The combined weight of the holiday season and stacks of new books piled around the office made me wistful for simpler, smaller pleasures. Harvey Penick's brevity is behind us now, old news, replaced by an apparent cumulative flexing of literary muscle. Our taste for bigger cars, it seems, extends to books.

Even with reprints of familiar classics, size matters. The handsome edition of The Story of American Golf (The Callaway Golfer, 2000) is but one of many. It's bulked up! The new reprint is an inch taller and appreciably thicker than the original. To attempt to read this book in bed risks injury. Buffed as the new rendering of Herb Wind's opus may be, somehow it's not as…approachable. There's something sterile about it. It's meant more for the parlor than the den, a trophy book.

The same goes for Dave Pelz's new testaments on putting and the short game, numbingly comprehensive, they are also heavy - literally and figuratively - more like textbooks than something to curl up with. Artisan's The 500 World's Greatest Golf Holes, by George Peper and the Editors of Golf Magazine, could carry an endorsement from Gold's Gym. It makes an excellent, if cumbersome, barbell. Heck, in the wrong hands, it could hurt someone, a literary SUV.

Paperbacks are still very much with us, of course, although they've evolved and are often as expensive as (what we're used to paying for) hardbacks. Perhaps the paperback's popularity was doomed by our love of the automobile and disinterest in mass transit. Or, it might've lost its edge to tabloid TV, audio books or talk radio. I'm guessing. Whatever the reason, the cheap paperback that fit easily inside a jacket or back pocket is not really very hip and now, is it? Tastes change. There are dozens of Jack Nicklaus books, serialized newspaper cartoons. Gary Player also had a daily instructional strip, collected and published, but these are blips on the screen. Many older titles have since moved from the drugstore carousel to the collectible store and the Goodwill, the covers cherished, more than the content, for their colorful and even lurid artwork.

There are deserving golf books in more manageable, even novel, sizes. Not all of them are "collectibles" either, which means they can still be had for a reasonable price, even a song. I've pulled out several of my favorites. Some are relatively recent, others older, with a few culled for 39 cents at the Salvation Army. They're out there, anomalies in the way that 45s are sometimes pressed by current-day bands. Who knows? Maybe one day the joys of the flicker book (with special Flip-Vision!) will be rekindled and they'll make a comeback. You know, like scooters.

A warehouse couldn't hold all the books pitched by the empty tag: "Fits perfectly inside a golf bag." Ridiculous a selling point as that sounds, (the immediate thought is that it must not have any other merits), size alone should not detract from a book's merits, which may be considerable. This is especially true in golf, a game after all that prizes accuracy and precision over brawn.

So, rather than judge a book by its cover, or its size, here is an informal and personal list of works worthy of repeated 'reps'.

PGA Tour official Mark Russell's Golf Rules Plain & Simple (Harper Perennial, 1999) is not much bigger than the rulebook. Concisely written and well organized with a few descriptive photos, each situation is addressed by outlining both the common misconception and the correct procedure. Additionally, he selects five (Rules 18, 21, 32, 34 and 36) to keep in mind. Understand these, he says, and we'll be the rules expert in our foursomes. (Whether that is a good thing or not is left unanswered.)

Neuropsychologist Fran Pirozzolo (consultant to several pro sports teams) collaborated with author Russ Pate on The Mental Game Pocket Companion for Golf (Harper Perennial, 1995). Don't be frightened off by the tartan cover featuring a square jawed model simulating a plumb bob. Hardly bigger than an address book, it offers 100 one-page, thought provoking parables, with a few blank pages in the back for "Mental Notes."

In one Jack Nicklaus addresses fear. "When fear starts to hit me, my best chance for overcoming it lies in facing it squarely and examining it rationally. Here's what I tell myself: 'Okay, what are your frightened of? You're obviously playing well or you wouldn't be here. Go ahead, enjoy yourself. Play one shot at a time and meet the challenge.' " [The rationale might not exactly translate but you get the idea.]

One of the few entertaining spins on the rules is the fanciful Golf on the Tundra, The Official Rulebook of the Tundra Golf Association (Bad Dog Press, 1996). With a few notable exceptions, golf humor books are decidedly frosty. Not the frozen foursome. Well versed in cold weather golf, they've got a nice light dry touch. Any you know what they say - it's a dry cold. They obviously had a blast creating everything from ads for the Teeminator (Drives Tees into Ice, Frozen Tundra, even Solid Granite!) to a hash of winter rules.

"8a. If a player's ball is interfered with by the head or body of a sledder, the player is allowed a drop where the ball would have landed or a free shot from the ball's original position." The rule is embellished with a tasteful international sign depicting a sledding stick figure being beaned by a golf ball. Very nice. This is a book with tongue firmly frozen to cheek.

How You Can Play Better Golf Using Self-Hypnosis by Jack Heise (Wilshire Book Company, 1961) was too good to pass up. The title got me thinking. Perhaps, at the snap of a finger, I could unwittingly be made to bark like a chicken, as in the old parlor trick, AND play better golf. Given that golf is undergoing something of a boom in matters of the mind, this book may some day be hailed as a landmark excursion into the mental game. Far be it for me to belittle the powers of the subconscious mind. All of us I think have witnessed, either in ourselves or others, some inkling of forces beyond our control. Perhaps the most notable - given a nice treatment in Bob Cullen's Why Golf? - is Jack Fleck's conquering of Hogan at the Olympic Club. All Fleck can recall is that he had a good feeling in his hands.

There was once a companion record issued to this book (and a free club offer!). I'm trying to find the record. Amazingly, the book and an audiotape are still available from the publisher, whose other titles include: Success-Cybernetics, Mind over Platter, and How to Get Rich in Mail Order.

Recent inductee to the World Golf Hall of Fame Jack Burke turns up in Jack Heise's book. He turns up in Fran Pirozzolo's book too. Not surprisingly. The Masters winner and founder of The Champions is certainly a candidate for the been-there, done-that award. Few men living can share his golf pedigree, his experience or his insight. It sold for 25 cents when The Natural Way to Better Golf (Bantam edition, 1955) came out. At the time the jacket touts the author as "the hottest young professional in golf." And would you look at the raffish way he wears that shirt! He's authored a couple of other books, equally scarce. This one is highly recommended. Characteristically Old School, he pulls no punches. "It's your swing, and your stuck with it," he writes, between Hogan and Bing Crosby stories. "The secret of consistency is to hit every shot, from the putt through the drive, with the same basic action." He tells killer Ryder Cup/Texas wedge stories too. A timeline could run through Mr. Burke, back to his father, the first authentic teaching pro Texas ever had, to his cousins, the Marrs, to Harvey Penick, to Hogan. This book, dated in some of the comic lingo, is a treat, and deserving of a new audience.

It pains me to write it, but Henry Longhurst may not be for everyone. How to Get Started in Golf (Hodder and Stoughton, 1967, with illustrations by Alex Hay) occasionally turns up on Golf Collectors' Society meeting trade tables for a few bucks. It will delight Longhurst fans. To those who wonder what happened to golf, Henry's patrician advice and memories of the game in simpler times will seem archaic, but a tonic all the same. Longhurst was a smooth and masterful writer, with just the right touches of demure enthusiasm. He could make raking the leaves sound inviting. This slim paperback also includes a sterling instruction article based on several meetings in St. Andrews with Peter Thomson.

The book is geared to children, published under the auspices of The Golf Foundation, but like all memorable children's books, it can be read and savored by anyone. In it, Henry writes: "As to learning to make golf shots, I can only compare it with learning to play the piano. You are asking a whole series of muscles to perform actions to which they are unaccustomed and in each case there is no substitute for "playing scales". The only encouragement I can give, having experienced both, is to say that "playing scales" at golf is liable to be a great deal more fun than playing on the piano."

Were a book like this to appear, say, with Tiger's endorsement and covering etiquette and getting started, there might be hope for the future after all.

Flicker books are not uncommon in collecting circles, and many command real money. Two that do not that I nevertheless enjoy are The Putter Book by Bob Rosburg (Cornerstone Library, 1963) - with "Special Flip-Vision Section for "Motion Picture" of the Swing - and Tony Jacklin's Golf Step by Step (Bantam edition, 1970). With these books my interest is less, I have to admit, in the instruction as in the fun of flicking the photos. I think I would've enjoyed seeing Jacklin at his best. Henry Cotton, Jacklin tells us, kept a squash ball in his pocket to strengthen his hands and wrists. Bob Rosburg won $2,000 for winning the 1963 Miami Open. He also had a try-out with the Detroit Tigers as a pitcher. Good stuff.

If the above kindles some enthusiasm for smaller books, hooray. Not only are they less expensive and less problematic in bed or on a train, but they also take up less space on the shelf. Sooner or later, this becomes a bigger deal than one imagines (especially if you move). I'll grant you that the coffee table genre may in time improve your biceps, but surely flicking the page flickers improves coordination in the fingers and hands. The pleasure of that alone makes them worth searching for.

Swing Thoughts - Volume I
Swing Thoughts - Volume II
Swing Thoughts - Volume III
Swing Thoughts - Volume IV
Swing Thoughts - Volume V
Swing Thoughts - Volume VI
Swing Thoughts - Volume VII