Greetings Golfers,

It’s not exactly golf weather. But, it’s pretty good weather for reading … especially golf books.

Just picked up 3 golf books at a used book store – think I got pretty lucky. One book – “A Woman’s Golf Game” made my wife very happy. We once owned it, and I’ve been accused of its disappearance. So anything after that was gravy.

And the other two are good gravy. I’d already owned one – “Dr. Golf” by William Price Fox. The book is ridiculous, but really funny. Dr. Golf is the stuffy, old, blue-blooded owner of mythical Eagle-Ho golf sanctuary. He responds to golf questions like a Dear Abby … the questions are inane and the answers are really absurd. Not everyone thinks it’s funny – aforementioned wife is one.

The other book is hard to find and is a real treasure – “The Short Way To Lower Scoring” by Paul Runyan. Runyan was THE master of the short game. In 1938 he beat Sam Snead in the PGA Championship (match play) 8 and 7. Snead drove the ball at least 50 yards past Runyan – I’ve read sometimes it was 100 yards. But Runyan used the short game as a weapon – not to save strokes, but to gain strokes.

In fact, Runyan once computed that on shots within 4 feet of the green, he averaged 1.97 shots to get it in the hole. Meaning he averaged better than getting it up and down – he chipped in more often than he left himself 2 putts.

Will this reading help my golf game? Maybe – maybe not. But it’s better than being outside.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com