Amazon.com
Smith, the guru behind two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, offers a simple suggestion to get your swing on course: find your own. If it seems obvious, the sad truth is that it's obvious to all subsets of the human species other than golfers; golfers tend to want to ape the mechanics of whoever's on top of the leader board for the week. Smith preaches that you begin with an honest assessment of your own skills and ability. From there, his instructional tees up theory, drills, and exercises geared to getting you into what he calls the "ideal impact position"--the connection of club face to golf ball--so that regardless of whether you resemble the liquid Fred Couples or the spastic club hacker, you can at least strike the ball with confidence. Smith fills Swing with useful photos and understandable mechanics, and ends with an agreeable chapter on lessons he's learned through the years from others, including such pros as Janzen, Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, and Phil Mickelson; good teachers should always tip a tam to their own sources of inspiration. --Jeff Silverman
Booklist
For every laser beam duffers launch, they can count on 10 times as many shanks, slices, hooks, and plain old to-hell-with-its. Such flailing does not breed contempt for golf, only an immortal search for a book as old as the sport, the instructional. This one explains the mechanics of the full swing; players excavating sand, stubbing chips, or three-putting every green must consult another pedagogue of the practice tee. Not a head doctor intoning spiritual "swing thoughts," Smith is a levelheaded observer of an average golfer's typical mistakes. Some errors stem from adages ("Keep left arm straight") that golfers have grooved into comfortable-feeling but flawed swings. Smith critiques these, then underscores the perseverance necessary to groove a proper technique. The balance of the book breaks the swing into its component parts, with the usual demonstration pictures of pros and the author himself. Smith's teaching talent permeates every paragraph with useful insights and practice drills, giving intermediate hackers hope of redemption. A solid lesson plan. Gilbert Taylor
