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


Review
"Ben Hogan believed that an average golfer could develop a consistent swing and break 80.  I also believe this... my goal in this book is to offer advice that can help golfers of all ability levels who dream of shooting 80 or lower; not so that golfers can re-create Hogan's swing-that would be impossible-but so that they can learn from him and incorporate certain elements into their games."
--David Leadbetter


Review
?It took some nerve, one might say temerity, for David Leadbetter to presume to improve upon the master?s work. But improve upon it he has.?
?Edmonton Journal


Book Description
More than a half century after he began his professional career, Ben Hogan is still considered the purest striker of a golf ball in the history of the game. His was a swing honed to perfection, and teaching professionals agree that Hogan's technique is the perfect platform on which golfers of all skill levels can build a fundamental understanding of golf. Unfortunately, photographs of Hogan's full swing and detailed close-ups of his grip and positioning have never been available for analysis. Instructors from around the world have always begun with a serious handicap when explaining to their students how a man of average stature could generate exceptional power and control from tee to green.
Now, thanks to the newly discovered critical photography featured in this book, the mysteries of Ben Hogan's form are revealed.

One vital characteristic of David Leadbetter's teaching philosophy, which has made him the world's #1 teacher, is his ability to translate very difficult swing concepts into easy-to-understand language. When the lost photographs from Hogan's seminal instructional manual, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, were discovered by the Hogan estate, David Leadbetter was the immediate and perfect choice to craft the quintessential instruction book for today's golfer, based on the Hogan form. By combining his exceptional skills as a communicator and his encyclopedic knowledge of the mechanics of golf, Leadbetter uses these remarkable images of the master at work to demonstrate the basic techniques of golf.

The result is The Fundamentals of Hogan, the one book that all golfers who dream of breaking 80 need to have in their libraries. Golf's #1 professional instructor translates Ben Hogan's fundamentals for players of all skill levels





From the Inside Flap
More than a half century after he began his professional career, Ben Hogan is still considered the purest striker of a golf ball in the history of the game. His was a swing honed to perfection, and teaching professionals agree that Hogan's technique is the perfect platform on which golfers of all skill levels can build a fundamental understanding of golf. Unfortunately, photographs of Hogan's full swing and detailed close-ups of his grip and positioning have never been available for analysis. Instructors from around the world have always begun with a serious handicap when explaining to their students how a man of average stature could generate exceptional power and control from tee to green.
Now, thanks to the newly discovered critical photography featured in this book, the mysteries of Ben Hogan's form are revealed.

One vital characteristic of David Leadbetter's teaching philosophy, which has made him the world's #1 teacher, is his ability to translate very difficult swing concepts into easy-to-understand language. When the lost photographs from Hogan's seminal instructional manual, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, were discovered by the Hogan estate, David Leadbetter was the immediate and perfect choice to craft the quintessential instruction book for today's golfer, based on the Hogan form. By combining his exceptional skills as a communicator and his encyclopedic knowledge of the mechanics of golf, Leadbetter uses these remarkable images of the master at work to demonstrate the basic techniques of golf.

The result is The Fundamentals of Hogan, the one book that all golfers who dream of breaking 80 need to have in their libraries. Golf's #1 professional instructor translates Ben Hogan's fundamentals for players of all skill levels


From the Back Cover
"Ben Hogan believed that an average golfer could develop a consistent swing and break 80. I also believe this... my goal in this book is to offer advice that can help golfers of all ability levels who dream of shooting 80 or lower; not so that golfers can re-create Hogan's swing-that would be impossible-but so that they can learn from him and incorporate certain elements into their games."
--David Leadbetter




About the Author
Voted golf's #1 instructor by Golf Digest and chosen by Golf World as one of the top ten golf teachers of the twentieth century (along with Harvey Penick and Ben Hogan), David Leadbetter's long list of students has included Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Nick Faldo, David Frost, and Bernhard Langer. In addition to establishing sixteen golf academies around the world, he has written five books that have sold over a million copies, and has produced seven instructional videos. David also frequently appears on the Golf Channel and in Golf Digest, where he is a senior instructional editor.

Ben Hogan began his professional career at the age of nineteen in 1931. After a tour of duty in the army during World War II, Hogan returned to the fairways and won his first major, the PGA Championship, in 1946. A near-fatal car accident shattered both of his legs in 1949, but through an intense rehabilitation process and legendary practice sessions that became the basis of his instructional philosophy, Hogan was back on tour within a year and went on to win six more major championships. In 1953 he became the first player to win the British Open, the Masters, and the U.S. Open all in the same year. Ben Hogan is universally accepted as one of the finest players to ever play the game.

Lorne Rubenstein is an award-winning journalist who has written a golf column since 1980 for the Toronto Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. He has written for Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, Golf Journal, Links Magazine, and Golf Monthly (U.K.). Lorne writes a column for Score Magazine and for Senior Golfer, and is a contributing editor to Travel & Leisure Golf. He also writes a weekly column at www.fifty-plus.net. The Fundamentals of Hogan is the latest of many books he has authored or coauthored; the list includes Seasons in a Golfer's Life (with Jim Nelford, 1984), The Natural Golf Swing (with George Knudson, 1988), Links: An Insider's Tour Through the World of Golf (1990), Touring Prose: Writings on Golf (1993), and The Swing (with Nick Price, 1997).

FROM THE PUBLISHER