Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book Review

Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: Lessons And Teachings From A Lifetime In Golf
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Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: A must read for every golfer.

If you have not yet read Harvey Penick’s golf instruction masterpiece, you have missed one of the great golf books ever written. Along with Hogan’s Five Lessons, this should be on every golfer’s shelf. The advice is simple,  straightforward and focused (mostly) on the mental aspects of the game. I read it at the beginning of every season as a sort of mental refresher. It is officially 200 pages long, but reads much faster. I consume it in about an hour.

Harvey Penick was the longtime pro at the Austin Country Club, and coach of the University of Texas Longhorns golf team from 1931 to 1963, coaching the Longhorns to 21 Southwest Conference championships in 33 years, including 20 out of 23 seasons from 1932 to 1954 (1932–38; 1940–47; 1949–52; 1954).  Among his pupils:  Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, and Kathy Whitworth.

The book’s title is a reference to a red notebook that Penick carried, and which contained much of his golfing wisdom.

Interestingly, there is quite a bit here about teaching golf that I’ve also been able to apply to my classroom.