The Lost Fundamental is On Press

Some of you more loyal kogblog fans will recall my article on Tony Manzoni. He and I have been working on a golf instructional book for the last couple years and it's now hurtling toward completion. In fact, it will be available for purchase (in print form) in February.

I can't let the cat out of the bag on the contents, you'll just have to wait for the book.

However, I can share the introduction from the book as a kind of teaser, so here it is:

A great deal of unnecessarily bad golf is played in this world. The people who go on playing it, year in and year out, with unquenchable hope and enthusiasm, constitute the game's mainstay, for their zeal is complete, and zeal that remains unabated in the face of long-sustained adversity is the most powerful constituent in the whole fabric of a prosperous pastime.

Harry Vardon
Totteridge, Hertfordshire, England
1922

It has been 87 years since The Gist of Golf was published and not much has changed. Hope and enthusiasm are still unquenchable and far too much bad golf is played. When I think of the millions of words that have been written since Vardon wrote those, each with the intent of helping people play better golf, I stand somewhat humbled at the idea of adding even more verbiage to golf’s lexicon.

At the same time, humility can be false and I think it would be a great mistake to assume that there is no more to be written about golf with the potential to genuinely help the average or aspiring player. The very few and the very best of those millions of words written about golf explain what may be termed a fundamental. Once you've been around this game long enough you come to realize that it is very difficult to come up with a genuine principle, something that is true for all players at every level.

About a year ago, while visiting the desert, I picked up a local desert golf magazine that had an article on Tony Manzoni that alluded to his swing theory. The article was pretty sparse, and didn't really get to the essence of what Manzoni was saying, but there was enough there to pique my interest. So, I decided to drop him an email, not really expecting to hear back. To my surprise, I did hear back and Manzoni was happy to describe what he had learned about the swing in painstaking and illuminating detail.

Manzoni and I kept up our correspondence and finally decided to work this book together. Now, I simply love reading golf instructional books. There's something simultaneously funny and sad about those millions of words devoted to a physical process that lasts less than two seconds. With the handicap of the average American golfer unchanged over the last half century I state unequivocally that most golf instructional books are not worth the paper they're printed on. That said, I truly believe Tony Manzoni has something that is both special and fundamental to say about golf.

It's true that this book adds a few more words to all of those already written about the golf swing. Still, I have every confidence that this book will make the game easier and more enjoyable for players around the world and it is that confidence that makes all effort of this project so worthwhile.

It's been a lot of fun being a small part of it.

Paul Cervantes
Los Angeles, California
2010