In The Mail: Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons

Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf – 2024 Edition
on Amazon

Arriving in the mail this week was a copy of the new edition of the classic golf instruction book: Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, by Ben Hogan.

At the risk of insulting my readers, who no doubt are very much familiar with Five Lessons, I will note that it is the best-selling golf book of all time. First published in 1957, Five Lessons was a collaboration between Hogan, noted author Herbert Warren Wind and illustrator Anthony Ravielli.

The part of the book that is most vivid in my memory is the illustration of Hogan setting up inside a tilted pane of glass to show how the swing plane should work.

Hogan believed that anyone with average coordination should be able to break 80.

The new version of Five Lessons features an introduction from Lee Trevino, new material about Hogan and the book’s legacy and unpublished photos of Hogan.

The aforementioned “new material” in this edition are essays and excerpts from larger works by Ben Crenshaw, Red Smith, Herbert Warren Wind, Dan Jenknins, James Dodsoon, Jamie Diaz, Dave Anderson, John Garrity and Michael Bamberger.

If by chance you haven’t read Five Lessons or don’t have a copy, this new edition will hit the bookshelves November 19. The publisher is Simon and Schuster.