Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf

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With his career now tailing off, Crenshaw headed to the 1995 Masters as an out-of-sorts 43-year-old. He was by now barely a feature in the Majors, and had only won four times on the PGA Tour that decade. But over the course of the next four days, he executed his game on Augusta’s greens to near perfection.

When the member and the general leave, Helen and Penny scold me. I am wearing myself out, they say. They remind me that before Ben dropped by, a girl who is hoping to make the University of Texas team had come to talk to me about her progress, and I had asked questions for an hour.If you aren't sure where to position the ball for any iron, take a couple of practice swings and note where the club-face brushes with the ground. Another way is to put down your iron on the grass with a square face, and you will see where the manufacturing designed the club to be played. Many asked to read the book. I wouldn't show it to Tommy Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Kathy Whitworth, Betty Jameson, Sandra Palmer or any of the others, no matter how much I loved them.

When you take a stronger club and try to hit it easy, your muscles will involuntarily tell you that you are using the wrong club, and you are likely to flinch and pull up on the shot,” he said. “If you want to hit the stronger club anyway, grip down an inch on the handle — and go ahead and hit it hard.” Now it’s as easy as making a normal swing, but with one key caveat — hit three or four inches behind the ball. As I mentioned with the second book on this list, Tiger Woods is a wildly private person. Up until his infamous scandal in 2010, not much was known about the man unless he told the media himself. Golf in the Kingdom is a widely debated book but for golfers who do like it, it is known as classic. It takes a very different approach than most of the other ones on this list. Leonard also mentions the King in trying to capture Crenshaw’s legacy: “Arnold had a bigger career and came along at a different time, but in the end Ben’s impact might be just as big because of his design work. All those great courses he’s built will live on forever, hopefully. Arnold is always celebrated for growing the game, but what could be a better way to grow the game than to create beautiful, fun courses that make golfers want to play more golf?”

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With a three-shot lead tied up, he would card a closing 68 to win by two from Tom Watson. “I knew I was capable,” he would say. “But you never know. You just never know in golf.” The victory secured Crenshaw’s place in the Hall of Fame, but its meaning transcends mere wins and losses. The whole golf world cried along with Crenshaw when he doubled-over on Augusta National’s 18th green, felled by the bittersweet emotions of having won for Harvey. The metaphysical overtones of the victory confirmed for many that Gentle Ben was more than just an everyday Tour player. With his palpable love for the game and warm embrace of its history, Crenshaw has always been a romantic figure—basically Shivas Irons with a better putting stroke. Harvey told Shrake about his years as the head coach at Texas. He affirmed what he had told many others. “Boys would come from all over the state,” Harvey told him. “The local pros helped these boys. I took thirty-two years of knowledge from these golf pros all over the state.” Harvey fetched a sheet of paper — Austin Country Club letterhead, to be sure — to compose his reply. He tried to keep the pen steady in his hand so that what he wrote didn’t look like nervous scribble. How can you not love big John Daly? While he’s had his share of struggles, on and off the course, over the past three decades, he’s one of the most entertaining furious the game has ever seen. In his golf autobiography, John shares all kinds of wild stories from his entertaining past.

I’ve got to tell you, Mr. President, that I am having a hard time trying to put into words the high honor and true joy your letter has brought to this old caddy. It would have been nice to think that I might have been half as good a teacher as you have been a leader of our country, and I do mean that. Every time I found something about the swing or the stance or the mental approach that proved to be consistently successful, I wrote it down in my Little Red Book.r This golf book focuses solely on the short game and will help you with every shot imaginable near the green. Pelz will show you how to find your own personal weaknesses and how to instantly improve them so you can shoot lower scores. He putted without tension, and that was the key ingredient. When there was tension, the putter head would become lighter, forcing him to work more with his stroke. Without tension, a premium was put on maximising both rhythm and tempo. It was a beautiful complement.What made my Little Red Book special was not that what was written in it had never been said before. It was that what it says about playing golf has stood the test of time. I played in an awful lot of tournaments,” Harvey said. “But I felt like I was playing as much for what I learned in association with my fellow pros.” Shrake knew he needed early publicity to build momentum. He wanted to send complimentary copies of the Little Red Book to notable figures in journalism, sports, and the literary industry. He borrowed a list of names that his friend Dan Jenkins had used in the summer of 1991 for his novel You Gotta Play Hurt. It was a roster of elites. Jenkins would not have had it any other way. Shrake wouldn’t either. Still, I'm glad I got this book. It's always fun to read about golf from someone who loves it, and it serves as a good motivator for me(: