John Jacobs' Practical Golf: A Guide for Beginners (1972)

Philip Martin: Advice very sage on each single page.

Australia on Aug 14, 2021

EK Sullivan: This was a gift so I can not accurately rate it

United States on Apr 13, 2021

Richard: Golf clásico. Siempre cigentw

Spain on Mar 15, 2020

Dale Gray: Improving 2 aspects of my golf swing. Found the answers

Canada on May 30, 2019

Chris Downing: This was the first book I ever had on golf and recently wanted to get another copy as someone at golf was raving about it. It's almost the book that wrote the start of the celebrity golf coaches like Leadbetter and Harmon. Every major coach talks of how much they learnt from John Jacobs, and this book was probably the start of it all. Pretty much following the lead given by the Ravielli / Hogan, Five Fundamentals, it gives an English take on everything to do with the golf swing and lays it out in similar style. So if you like Hogan's book, you should have a look at this one as well- written 15 years after the 1952 Hogan book, it's a book about the golf swing of it's time - 1972 - when David Leadbetter, Butch Harmon, Jimmy Ballard, and the rest of them were just thinking that maybe there's a good living to be made from being a golf guru!

United Kingdom on Nov 27, 2016

stueckel: Jacobs zeigt, dass weniger wirklich mehr ist. Er zwingt zum nachdenken, überflutet einen aber nich tmit Bilderstaffetten von vermeintlich perfekten Schwüngen. Die schematischen Zeichnungen erfüllen ihren Zweck m. E. besser, als es das jedes Foto könnte.
Ein Muss im Bücherschrank von jedem, der sich theortisch mit dem Golfschwung befassen will.

Germany on Dec 23, 2015

Allen Jackson: I found this book to be the very best of all golf instruction books, yes, even vs. the current ones (I am a 6-handicap). John Jacobs was the longtime greatest teacher in Europe whom Jack Nicklaus and so many others recommended most highly. The absolute fundamentals of the swing and game are all in this great book, and it has the best illustrations available--to this day-- by the gifted golf illustrator, Anthony Ravielli, who did similarly fantastic illustrations for Ben Hogan's Five Lessons. Jacobs, a former top European tour player from England and THE acknowledged top European teacher before anyone ever heard of David Leadbetter, discusses WHY you are to do certain things, and emphasizes throughout the book how the ball flight shows you what you are doing right and doing wrong. He builds from the all-important grip and stance. When things get complicated in this manual, he then submits them to the reader in more simplistic fashion, such as this: The swing is "two turns and a swoosh." He uses this simplicity throughout, but provides plenty of rationale and detail on top of that--all the detail you'll ever need-- as he explains the "why." In this way, you can correct your own...

United States on Sep 05, 2015

Nate: I wanted to take a moment to review this great book. I got it earlier this week, and I started reading it right away...I'm new to golf, but I have STRUGGLED really badly. If you can imagine a bad shot on a golf course, I have hit it. I hit bad slices, shanks, topped shots etc etc etc. But I LOVE the game. I read Hogan's 5 lessons, didn't really help, I read 'keys to the effortless swing' and it just didn't connect. I've taken a few lessons, not much help either...I don't know how to explain it, but this book is doing the trick for me. I went golfing last week before I read this, and I shot horribly, all my usual problems...I sat down this week and read through half of this book (I haven't even finished it yet) and I went out to the range for an hour and I played a 9 hole round...I literally hit 12 shots better. That may sound unbelievable, but it happened.

Here are the reasons why I think this book is great:

1. The explanations are really simple.
2. This book stresses how to change common errors, and it really describes these errors beautifully.
3. This is the first book which acknowledges that a really good swing leads with the left hip, but that a pretty good...

United States on Oct 29, 2010

Kindle Customer: I picked up this book after determining to spend this winter digesting everything I could in an attempt to improve my golf game. After reading an article about John Jacobs in a recent issue of Golf Digest I looked into his books. This one seemed to be what I was looking for. I'm trying to be realistic here. I don't want to turn pro, but I just want to stop being so embarrassed on the course with my golf buddies.

The way this book has helped me is to better understand what is happening with my swing at the moment of impact. Just understanding this has made my practice more productive and helped me to make adjustments on the course. Another way this book has helped me is in my attitude on the course. Jacobs urges high-handicappers to hit high-percentage shots and stop 'going for it' on each shot. This kind of makes your game boring when you're playing with 3 other guys that are 'going for it' on each shot while you lay up, but on the other hand you aren't the one looking for your ball in the ditch, woods, or along the water's edge. At the end of the round this attitude pays off.

The only drawback for this book is the passive voice, English spelling (i.e., practise not...

United States on Mar 12, 2006