The Lost Mechanics Behind Hogan's Swing

""Like finding the Rosetta stone of golf. . . . It's the Hogan book Hogan himself never wrote, packed with the insights the great champion passed on to John Schlee (in a fascinating mentor-disciple relationship) and that Schlee, in turn, bequeathed to Tom Bertrand...thank goodness we've got Tom Bertrand to preserve the nuggets of pure golfing gold that the Master dug up 'out of the dirt' of ten thousand practice tees and a thousand tournaments.

A must-read for every serious student of the game.""

--Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance

For golf geeks, the matter of Ben Hogan's "secret" has been a tantalizing mystery for more than 50 years. Did Hogan--perhaps the game's greatest shotmaker--really figure out the secret to the golf swing, and if so, what the heck is it? There have been many secret-finders over the years: Hogan himself revealed part of it in his classic Five Lessons (1957); then, more recently, Jody Vasquez, in Afternoons with Mr. Hogan (2004), divulged that, when he was shagging balls for the master in the 1960s, Hogan spilled all the beans: it's about the right knee and the left wrist. Yes, says Bertrand, who worked for years with Hogan protege John Schlee, knees and wrists play roles, but Hogan withheld the "missing link." Schlee knew it, though, and before succumbing to Alzheimer's, he passed it on to Bertrand: it's what the left elbow does on the downswing. Non-golfers will find this whole business incredibly silly, but the rest of us will be excused for looking at our left elbows with newfound respect. If you read golf instructionals, this one is a must. 

--Bill Ott