‘Leadbetter’s Quick Tips: The Ultimate Short Lessons to Fix Any Part of Your Game’

By: Bob Spiwak


This is a Golf Digest book, and if you are on this website you have heard of David Leadbetter. Ya’ know, one thing I have disliked about most golf mags (Golf for Women is an exception) is their tips on how to solve any swing problem. I include Digest in this category. Problem is, six months down the calendar there will be a tip to cure a similar problem and probably contradict the one before, or at best make for confusion. Thus, I subscribe to no mags other than GFW.

Leadbetter’s book is 170 pages of these tips. But what makes it an outstanding read and resource is that all the tips are by one guy. They are well-illustrated (and filled with a bunch of big-name Tour folks) and they follow a logical pattern from swing fundamentals through the drive through all the clubs to putting and ending with curing swing flaws.

As a resource, unlike carrying three years’ worth of magazines to your practice area, all this is contained in a 6 by 8 inch book. Take it with you to the range, open it up to the chapter dealing with where you need help and set it on the ground with a rock to hold it open.

Better yet, rest it against your bag on your towel so you don’t filthify it and get it wet. This book is a keeper. From page to page there is continuity in the instructions. The most important part is, aside from being written by a respected teacher (and with no contradictions), the advice is brief and concise and not replete with anecdotes as are so many tomes on improving your game.

This will make a great gift for any golfer, including you.

“Leadbetter’s Quick Tips: The Ultimate Short Lessons to Fix Any Part of Your Game,” Doubleday, $24.95, ISBN 0-385-51193-3.

Bob Spiwak took up golf in 1953 as a respite from the rigors of selling bibles door-to-door in North Dakota. Though suffering a four-year lapse, he’s back to being a fanatical golfer. Now a contributing editor for Cybergolf, Spiwak has written articles for almost every golf magazine in the Western world. Bob’s most treasured golf antiquity is a nod he got from Gerald Ford at the 1990 Golf Summit. Spiwak lives in Mazama, Wash., with his wife and several pets next to his fabled ultraprivate Whispering Rattlesnakes Golf & Flubbers Club.