Golfweeks’ 101 Winning Golf Tips Book Review

Golfweek’s 101 Winning Golf Tips: Become a Shot-Making Virtuoso with Tips from the Tour’s Top Pros (Second Edition)
by John Andrisani

Grade: B+
Teacher’s Comments: Nothing groundbreaking, but lots of good material

In 101 Winning Golf Tips, veteran golf writer John Andrisani has assembled a collection of tips from the pros on how to pull off shots under a wide variety of conditions and situations. These aren’t your garden variety grip-stance-swing plane tips, but advice grounded in situations the golfer often encounters. Each tip presents a situation, a strategy and a technique to master. For example, Tip 72:

Situation: The ball lies in a spot of threadbare fringe, twenty five feet from the hole. You fear topping the ball because there’s no cushion underneath.

Strategy: You must pick the ball cleanly off the virtually bare fringe, rather than hit down on it with a sand wedge.

Shot Technique Tip: Select a pitching wedge. Grip the club more firmly than normal. Play the ball two inches behind your left heel. Swing the club back to waist height, keeping your body as still as is physically possible, controlling the motion almost entirely with your arms. Only let your right wrist hinge slightly, as you will need to swing on a slight upright plane to be poised to bring the club down into the ball correctly.

Trigger the downswing by making a subtle shift of the hips toward the target. As you bring the club closer to the ball, let the right wrist straighten. Swing through fluidly, letting your arms take over, so that the pitching wedge lifts the ball into the air.

Broad topics covered include driving, trouble play techniques, short game savvy, putting, Par-3 Shots and Fairway play.

The book is digest sized, with glossy pages and quite a few color photos, although those don’t add much to the whole. The strength is Andrisani’s writing, which is clear, short and pointed.

My one complaint about the book is that the binding is very tight, making it difficult to hold open and impossible to fold flat.