Best Golf Short Game Books (2026 Updated)

You can shoot in the 70’s! Ben Hogan has long believed that any golfer with average coordination can learn to break 80 if he applies himself intelligently — and here, with Herbert Warren Wind, and artist Anthony Ravielli, he tells you, step by step, just how to go about it.

The greatest golfer of our generation has distilled his experience as teacher, player, and observer of golf into a series of richly illustrated “visual instructions” that not only can improve your game and lower your score, but also can help you get even more fun out of what many people already think is the most enjoyable game in the world.

Each chapter, each tested “fundamental” is explained and demonstrated with amazing detail and clarity. It’s as though the master himself were right there at your elbow, giving you a personal lesson with the same thought and care that has gone into his lifetime of golf.

Tommy Armour’s classic How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time provides timeless golf instruction on the following subjects: * How to learn your best golf * What can your best golf be? * Taking you to the lesson tee * How your clubs can help you * The grip holds your swing together * How to get ready to swing * Footwork, the foundation of best golf * The art of hitting with the hands * The waggle, preliminary swing in miniature * The pause that means good timing * Assembling your game in good order * Saving strokes with simple approach shots * The fascinating, frustrating philosophy of putting * The simple routine of an orderly golf shot These classic bits of advice are accompanied by over four dozen two-color illustrations.

When Golf is Not a Game of Perfect was published in 1995, Dr. Bob Rotella made accessible for the first time what he has learned from years of working with the best golfers in the world. Now, with the success of that book, “Doc” Rotella, whose client list includes Nick Price, Davis Love III, Pat Bradley, Billy Mayfair, and Tom Kite among many others, is firmly established as the premier performance enhancement specialist in the golf world.

This new book, filled with anecdotes and inspirational instruction, focuses on the most important skill a golfer can have: the ability to think confidently. Confidence, or “playing with your eyes,” can be the difference between making par and a bogey, one-putting and three-putting, winning and losing.

To help readers revolutionize their own course management and mental game, Rotella relates stories of the game’s legendary figures, from Byron Nelson’s unsurpassed streak of eleven wins in a row and seventeen wins in a year in 1945 to inspirational rounds in the careers of Brad Faxon, Tom Kite, and Davis Love III.

Rotella tells of golfers playing when the pressure is most intense and confidence is most required, and depicts in detail their most personal thoughts and challenges. In essence, Rotella allows the reader not only to get inside the ropes but also to get inside the heads of the game’s greatest players in their most important moments.

In this highly instructional and motivational book, Rotella shows all golfers how they can use the same mental processes to achieve their own dreams, taking every bit as much joy from their triumphs as Tom Kite did in his U.

S. Open win at Pebble Beach. Filled with lore about the great players, great courses, and great tournaments, Golf Is a Game of Confidence inspires golfers to reach new heights in their games and in their lives.

Hailed as a classic and read everywhere golf is played, Golf My Way has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide since it was first published in 1974. Finally, Jack Nicklaus, golf’s leading master, definitively covers the whole of his game through a lifetime of greatness.

Golf My Way presents an all-inclusive, A-to-Z explanation of how this greatest of champions thinks about and plays the game. This book includes: -New introduction, endpiece, and illustrations -Brand-new chapters discussing the changes in Nicklaus’s outlook and techniques -Reflections on the differences in tournament golf today compared with when Nicklaus joined the PGA tour in 1962 -Advice on the mental elements of improved playing that are not directly related to ball-striking or shot-making.

Dr Bob Rotella is one of the hottest golfing performance consultants in the world today. Unlike other performance consultants, Rotella goes beyond the usual mental aspects of the game and the reliance on specific techniques.

In this extraordinary book, and with his clients, he creates an attitude and a mindset about all aspects of the golfer’s game, from mental preparation to competition. And, as some of the world’s greatest golfers will attest, the results are spectacular.

Filled with charming and insightful stories about golf and the golfers Rotella works with, GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player.

Over 150,000 readers have purchased Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible after just its first year of release publication, making the book an instant classic. Now, let Dave help you shape up your game on the greens with his new Putting Bible, which is sure to make all other putting manuals obsolete.

– Dave Pelz looks at putting, golf’s least-understood skill, as no one has ever approached it before. Because a putt is the terminal shot on every hole and there is no possibility of recovery from short misses, putts count almost a disproportionate amount.

Every golfer knows a 2-foot putt counts the same as a 300-yard drive–one stroke. And while the putting stroke is only one of several types of swings golfers make, it accounts for nearly half of all the swings made–43 percent–and perhaps as much as 80 percent of all the anguish and frustration involved in the game.

These are some of the reasons every golfer needs Dave’s insights into the putting game and the simplicity he brings to improving their ability to putt. – Putting is also different in another way: It is one of the few skills in all of sport in which any player, regardless of size, strength, speed, gender, or education, can compete equally with–and have a realistic chance to surpass the skills of–the best professionals in the world.

– As Dave explains, putting is actually simple to understand and do. Once golfers grasp his concepts, they can perform on the greens as never before. – Using decades of scientific research from studying thousands of golfers, Dave shows readers the simplicity of putting that escapes most golfers and lays out the fifteen well-defined building blocks of the putting game that each of us already has and owns.

This comprehensive guide from the internationally revered master of the short game and putting game–packed with charts, photos, and easy-to-understand instruction–will be the essential volume for all golfers who want to take strokes off their score with better putting.

A former NASA physicist and founder of the World Putting Championship, Dave brings a scientific rigor to his instruction that has made him the top putting expert in the world. Observing and teaching thousands of golfers to better their scores, Dave’s body of knowledge in putting is unequaled.

By uncovering the mysteries of this part of the game, Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible raises putting instruction to a new level. – Dave Pelz’s Scoring Game Schools and clinics are renowned worldwide, attracting top players like Jesper Parnevik, Tom Kite, Colin Montgomerie, two-time U.

S. Open Champion Lee Janzen, Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, and many LPGA players including Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann.

You can shoot in the 70’s! Ben Hogan has long believed that any golfer with average coordination can learn to break 80 if he applies himself intelligently — and here, with Herbert Warren Wind, and artist Anthony Ravielli, he tells you, step by step, just how to go about it.

The greatest golfer of our generation has distilled his experience as teacher, player, and observer of golf into a series of richly illustrated “visual instructions” that not only can improve your game and lower your score, but also can help you get even more fun out of what many people already think is the most enjoyable game in the world.

Each chapter, each tested “fundamental” is explained and demonstrated with amazing detail and clarity. It’s as though the master himself were right there at your elbow, giving you a personal lesson with the same thought and care that has gone into his lifetime of golf.

Harvey Penick’s life in golf began when he started caddying at the Austin, (Texas), Country Club at age eight. Eighty-one years later he is still there, still dispensing wisdom to pros and beginners alike.

His stature in the golf world is reflected in the remarkable array of champions he’s worked with, both men and women, including U. S. Open champion and golf’s leading money winner Tom Kite, Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, and LPGA Hall of Famers Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, and Kathy Whitworth.

It is not for nothing that the Teacher of the Year Award given by the Golf Teachers Association is called the Harvey Penick Award. Now, after sixty years of keeping notes on the things he’s seen and learned and on the golfing greats he’s taught, Penick is finally letting his Little Red Book (named for the red notebook he’s always kept) be seen by the golf world.

His simple, direct, practical wisdom pares away all the hypertechnical jargon that’s grown up around the golf swing, and lets all golfers, whatever their level, play their best. He avoids negative words; when Tom Kite asked him if he should “choke down” on the club for a particular shot, Harvey told him to “grip down” instead, to keep the word “choke” from entering his mind.

He advises golfers to have dinner with people who are good putters; their confidence may rub off, and it’s certainly better than listening to bad putters complain. And he shows why, if you’ve got a bad grip, the last thing you want is a good swing.

Throughout, Penick’s love of golf and, more importantly, his love of teaching shine through. He gets as much pleasure from watching a beginner get the ball in the air for the first time as he does when one of his students wins the U.

S. Open. Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book is an instant classic, a book to rank with Ben Hogan’s Modern Fundamentals of Golf and Tommy Armour’s How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time.

The mysterious and reclusive genius Moe Norman is acknowledged as the best ball-striker in the history of golf by many of the game’s greats. The Single Plane Golf Swing: Play Better Golf the Moe Norman Way reveals the secrets of the swing that enabled him to hit the ball solidly with unerring accuracy and consistency–every time.

Norman’s simple, efficient, and easily understood Single Plane Swing has improved the games of thousands of golfers. Golf professional Todd Graves, known as ‘Little Moe” and regarded as the world authority on Norman’s swing, comprehensively teaches readers the mechanics, drills, and feelings of the Single Plane Swing that Moe called “The Feeling of Greatness.

” Graves shares Norman’s brilliant insights and liberating approach to the game and demonstrates why the conventional “tour” swing is too complex and frustrating for the majority of amateurs. Illustrated with more than 300 photographs and written with Tim O’Connor, Norman’s biographer, the book also engagingly tells Norman’s bittersweet life story and explores the teacher-student bond forged between Norman and his protégé Graves.

Veteran golfers know that the secret to a lower score is a solid short game, but mastering those small strokes can be maddening-even for the pros. One of golf’s most revered instructors, Stan Utley now reveals the step-by-step tactics behind his revolutionary short-game techniques in The Art of the Short Game.

After introducing listeners to his groundbreaking philosophy that explains why most players don’t see all the shots available to them near the green, Utley moves on to shatter conventional wisdom about stance, grip, and ball position.

From choosing the right clubs (including a checklist of must-haves that should always be in your bag) to spin reduction during chipping and fearless sand play, The Art of the Short Game demystifies the most aggravating shots on the links.

Though Utley’s primer features a full set of drills, accompanied by more than seventy-five photos, his approach is far removed from the monotonous, mechanical instruction of yesteryear. Giving a time-tested secret weapon to every golfer at every level, Utley’s short-game methods turn trouble shots into triumph.

The next volume in the series will be Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible. “He who rules the short game collects the gold. “–Dave Pelz’s Golden Rule of Golf Fed up with trying to imitate the pros, buying the latest expensive equipment, and seeing your handicap stay the same? The first book by bestselling author and internationally revered golf instructor Dave Pelz since Putt Like the Pros, his bestselling classic, Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible can show you the way to lower scores by improving your short game.

The result of decades of scientific research studying thousands of golfers, Dave’s philosophy is as simple as it is revolutionary and groundbreaking: Instead of practicing the wrong things the right way, or the right things the wrong way, Pelz shows you how to find your own personal weaknesses and how to improve them to efficiently lower your scores.

Packed with all the knowledge, charts, and photos needed to learn from the master, Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible is the essential book for every golfer who’s looking to improve his or her game. Dave’s approach to golf is easy to understand: 80 percent of the strokes golfers lose to par are determined by their play within 100 yards of the green–the crucial scoring game.

The most important and yet the least focused-on aspect of golf, your short game, can indeed make or break your entire game. His renowned golf schools and clinics focus exclusively on putting and the short game, attracting top players like Tom Kite, Colin Montgomerie, two-time U.

S. Open champion Lee Janzen, reigning PGA champion Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, Payne Stewart, Peter Jacobsen, and many LPGA players including Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann. The pros know, as you are about to learn, that while others teach golfers how to swing, Dave Pelz teaches golfers how to score.

and win. A former physicist for NASA, Dave brings a scientific rigor to his research and instruction that has made him the top short-game expert in the world. Dave has observed and then taught thousands of golfers to improve their ability to score better.

The years he has spent studying the short game, including chipping, lobs, pitches, distance wedges, and bunker play, have resulted in an unequaled expertise and a fascinating body of knowledge on golf, with the statistics and data to back it up.

In this new book, Dave for the first time shares the understanding and techniques he has taught the pros, including a wide array of innovative tests and exercises for mastering those deceptive and high-pressure shots of the short game.

Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible is an essential book for golfers of all levels. Covering everything golfers need to know to improve their short game, Dave’s system can–and will–help you to consistently shoot lower scores.

There’s no denying that Tiger Woods has taken golf by storm. It seems like every time this 25-year-old swings a club, another PGA record is shattered. While his explosive drives, accurate approach shots, and steady putter certainly contribute to this success, both fans and critics agree that it’s Tiger’s devastating mental game that has propelled him to become the premier golfer of our time.

Now Tiger shares his thoughts on what he calls the game of a lifetime. He reveals the five secrets he believes are responsible for his success — a combination of physical, metaphysical, and psychological practices he uses daily to keep his game in top shape and help him to transcend all the ups and downs of golf.

Best of all, Tiger reveals his unique approach to the game for the first time ever in this one singular volume.

The twentieth anniversary edition of this classic work—the bestselling golf instruction book of all time and hailed as “the golfer’s equivalent of The Elements of Style” (The New York Times)—includes a new introduction by a prominent golfer, twenty new illustrations, and never-before-published materials from the Penick family archives.

The most beloved golf book of all time, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book has become required reading for all players and fans of the game, from beginners to seasoned pros. The legendary Harvey Penick, whom Sports Illustrated called the “Socrates of the golf world,” began his golfing career as a caddie in Austin, Texas, at the age of eight, and over the course of nearly a century worked with an amazing array of champions.

In this classic book, which is named for the red notebook he always kept, Penick’s simple, direct, practical wisdom pares away the hypertechnical jargon that’s grown up around the golf swing, and lets all golfers, whatever their level, play their best.

This twentieth-anniversary edition features a treasure trove of rare images from the Penick family archives, commemorates Penick’s lasting achievement with a moving new foreword by 2012 Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III—whose father learned the game under Penick’s tutelage—and reminds golfers everywhere to “take dead aim.

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How to improve your game and discover your true potential by increasing your concentration, willpower and confidence Every golfer, whether amateur or pro, who has ever picked up a club knows what it’s like to get the yips – that feeling when you inexplicably lose control of your shot, and become overwhelmed by self-doubt, tension, fear of failure and anxiety.

With a new introduction from golf performance pro Peter Hudson, the multi-million bestselling The Inner Game of Golf resolves this mental interference. It is not a book about how to play golf; it is a book about how to learn golf, and its lessons can be applied to any sport.

Putting aside the mechanics of golfing technique and laborious debates about strategy, this classic handbook for golfers of all levels tackles the psychological aspects of the game and reveals how you can perform to your true potential for more than brief moments at a time.

Golf is a simple game. You have a bunch of clubs and a ball. You have to hit the ball with a club into a series of holes laid out in the middle of a large, grassy field. As simple as it is, many people believe golf is the hardest game in the world.

If you’re like most golfers, you play the sport for fun, relaxation, and a chance to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. If you’re like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, or Tiger Woods, you get to do all that – and make a gazillion dollars to boot! Golf for Dummies, 2nd Edition, is a valuable tool for men and women of all ages who want to know more about golf or improve their game.

Whether you’re new to golf or a long-time duffer, this updated version of the bestselling guide will get you into the swing of things by helping you to: Master grip, stance, and swing Fix common faults Improve your putting Know the score on rules and etiquette Take advantage of high-tech equipment Shape up with golf-specific exercises Discover how to take strokes off your game by improving the technique of your swing with step-by-step photos.

Then master the all important putt to even better your score. Golf For Dummies, 2nd Edition, also covers the following topics and more: How to choose your golf balls and clubs Getting and staying in golf shape Getting the most from your lessons Where to play and who to play with Developing your own swing Putting, chipping, and pitching Special shots, conditions, and considerations Author and CBS television golf analyst Gary McCord is a PGA Senior Tour champion and a golf instructor to many celebrities.

In this ground-breaking approach to golf instruction, Dr Joseph Parent, both a noted PGA Tour coach and a respected Buddhist teacher, draws on this natural connection to teach golfers how to play with more consistency and less frustration, and consequently how to lower their scores.

The ultimate goal is not just to help people become better golfers, but better human beings. ‘ Zen Golf offers a fresh perspective for golf and for life. In chapters such as ‘How to Get from the Practice Tee to the First Tee’, ‘You Practice What You Fear’, and ‘How to Enjoy a Bad Round of Golf’, author Joseph Parent shows how to make one’s mind an ally rather than an enemy: how to stay calm, clear the interference that leads to bad shots, and eliminate bad habits and mental mistakes.

Rather than an instruction manual that takes you through a systematic programme, it is a collection of brief chapters offering the wisdom of traditional Zen stories and teachings distilled from a lifetime of actual lessons with golfers, many of whom are PGA professionals.

Continued success at golf (and any other endeavour) requires preparation, action and response – these form the framework for the instructions presented in Zen Golf. Applied correctly, they will help every reader of this unique book to achieve their peak performance.