John Daly is probably one of my favorite golfers of all time. His swing is somethin’ If you read his book, “Grip It and Rip It”, you will find that he does a lot of things that you don’t expect him to.

For example, John Daly does have one of the longest swings ever BUT he does has one of the best rhythms in golf. You don’t realize how great his rhythm is because all you are focusing on is his long swing and his distance. But look at his swing carefully and you will see a little Freddy Couples in him.

Even, Tiger’s previous Coach Butch Harmon, quotes John Daly in his book, Four Cornerstones of Winning Golf (By the way, THIS book, is way too cool…).

I used to try to copy his swing during one of my golf years and was pretty successful at it. I remember when I would read his book over and over again until couple pages decided to take lives of its own and take off somewhere in my bedroom…

Anyways, check it out. You should also read his book from couple years ago where he writes about his life but we will get to that so…

Get Grip It and Rip It! here

John Daly’s Swing on Youtube;

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P.S. The weirdest thing is that I live in San Francisco right next to John Daly Blvd., right next to Daly City! It must be a coincidence that he’s among my favorites. I mean, of all the places you can live in, I am living next to John Daly Blvd and Daly City?!? John should really move here.

Get the book here:

Grip It and Rip It: John Daly’s Guide to Hi…
by John Daly

Having spent more than 18 years playing golf, I’ve read a lot of golf books. (Actually, I think I read more than 95% of them, at least what’s on the bookstands..)

Anyways, I figured I could start recommending a few if you want to become a better golfer.

Harvey Penick is the teacher of the two famous golfers, Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw.

In this little book, you will learn a lot about how to “play” the game, not just hit balls.

There’s a lot of analogy between Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw in this book.

For instance, one time Tom Kite was practicing too much so Harvey told him to go play with 3 golf balls on the golf course instead.

There’s a little bit of this here and there that will tremendously help you understand that golf is not just hitting the ball. You can learn a lot of golf psychology from this little book. Although I personally don’t think Harvey’s swing mechanics are upto par, golf isn’t about swing mechanics so this should help.

Get it here. (No, I don’t make any money if you buy by clicking this link. But in the future, I will see if I can do that. )

Harvey Penick’s life in golf began when he started caddying at the Austin, (Texas), Country Club at age eight. Eighty-one years later he is still there, still dispensing wisdom to pros and beginners alike. His stature in the golf world is reflected in the remarkable array of champions he’s worked with, both men and women, including U.S. Open champion and golf’s leading money winner Tom Kite, Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, and LPGA Hall of Famers Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, and Kathy Whitworth. It is not for nothing that the Teacher of the Year Award given by the Golf Teachers Association is called the Harvey Penick Award.Now, after sixty years of keeping notes on the things he’s seen and learned and on the golfing greats he’s taught, Penick is finally letting his Little Red Book (named for the red notebook he’s always kept) be seen by the golf world. His simple, direct, practical wisdom pares away all the hypertechnical jargon that’s grown up around the golf swing, and lets all golfers, whatever their level, play their best. He avoids negative words; when Tom Kite asked him if he should “choke down” on the club for a particular shot, Harvey told him to “grip down” instead, to keep the word “choke” from entering his mind. He advises golfers to have dinner with people who are good putters; their confidence may rub off, and it’s certainly better than listening to bad putters complain. And he shows why, if you’ve got a bad grip, the last thing you want is a good swing.Throughout, Penick’s love of golf and, more importantly, his love of teaching shine through. He gets as much pleasure from watching a beginner get the ball in the air for the first time as he does when one of his students wins the U.S. Open.Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book is an instant classic, a book to rank with Ben Hogan’s Modern Fundamentals of Golf and Tommy Armour’s How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time.

Get the book here:

Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: Lessons an…
by Harvey Penick
$10.40

No, this isn’t 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Although I read that book and honestly I think it’s bunch of crap but don’t shoot me for my opinions. We can settle it on the golf course. Well I take it a back, I own both Stephen Covey’s book and tapes so I am at the same time a fan. (But it has not helped my life, at least not yet)

The only book that has really helped my life (my swing) are… well… let me get into that next time, the list is like more than 100 books so…

Anyways, Mike Pedersen, has a new blog! (Or I think he just added one to his site)

Congrats for making a blog, I am sure you will starting gettin’ Google keywords like crazy. If you want to show up first on Google, you know where to go.

Here’s the highly waited 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Mike Pederson:

1. Focus on golf fundamentals. Effective and successful golfers have solid fundamentals. Grip, stance, posture. These are critical before you even start your golf swing. If these are not solid, your chances of conistently hitting a good shot are far less.

2. Smart Practice. Successful golfers don’t go to the range without an agenda. They have a specific purpose for each practice session. It might be working on a consistent take-away for the entire practice. It could be spending a large amount of time doing a drill for their swing fault. It could be broken down to set time periods with each range of clubs.

3. Physical preparation. If you’ve been reading this blog at all, or maybe you have my golf fitness products already, you know how strong I feel about this. If I had my druthers, it would be at the top of the list ! But we can’t be partial can we . The best golfers focus on their physical weaknesses and make them strengths. Most amateurs don’t! They also work on their bodies specific to golf consistently.

4. Mental training. Most of the touring pros have their very own mental golf coach. They know how critical it is to maintain focus and composure for 4 straight days. Just a few slip ups and they miss a cut and make no money. Do you work on your mental game? What do you do currently to keep your focus on the course and for every shot?

5. Nutrition for prolonged energy. This one could be in the physcial preparation one, but I think it warrant its very own one. You get out of your body what you put in it. If you put low octane fuel in it, you’ll get the results of an AMC Pacer (remember those clunkers?). If you put the fuel of a ferrari, you’ll get stealth results, meaning personal best scores and even trophies from your local club tournaments.

6. Goal setting. Like in any endeavor, if you don’t set goals you have nothing to shoot for. You need to have a goal that really makes you reach! Not just lower your handicap by 2 strokes, but how about by 5 within one golf season? You can set goals for one round of golf, a tournament and for the entire season. Write them down and plot a plan to achieve them. The successful golfers sets goals for every round, tournament and season he/she plays in, and evaluates progress conistently.

7. Golf swing analysis. I added this one as I truly feel if you get your golf swing on video early on when you pick up the game, you’re givin yourself a true starting point and a phenomenal diagnositc evaluation on what you should really focus on to improve from the very beginning. Seeing yourself on video is such an eye-opener. Most of the pros use video for every practice session with their teachers.

via mikepedersen

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Check out Ben Crenshaw on Putting.

Everytime I watch his video, The Art of Putting, my putting has gotten better. This is actually an advice a lot of PGA Tour pros and teachers recommend.

I wish I can find a video of Ben putting on Youtube or whereever… we will have to wait until I do…

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I love Fred Couple’s swing. He probably has the most relaxed swing with such a fluid swing rhythm you can describe simple only as, “butter”.

He’s rhythm is the thing to copy. If you can watch his swing everyday and copy his rhythm, it will definitely help you.