The Game for a Lifetime: More Lessons and Teachings » (1 FIRESIDE)

The late Harvey Penick was a renowned golf pro who began his career at the Austin (Texas) Country Club as a caddie. Though he coached golf at the University of Texas for thirty years, and worked with the likes of Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, and Betsy Rawls, he never left the country club, where he continued to teach until his death in 1995.

His gentle demeanor and timeless wisdom made Harvey Penick America's best-loved teacher of the game of golf. From his lesson tee at the Austin Country Club, he taught several generations of champions and high-handicappers, pros and amateurs alike. All who came in contact with him came away with their grips improved, their souls refreshed, and their hearts gladdened by his love of teaching and his eagerness to serve. In The Game for a Lifetime, Harvey tells us about the different methods he used to help his pupils find twenty more yards off the tee; about the incredible swing of Leaping Lucifer who did everything wrong when he stood over the ball, but whom Harvey helped to find contentment and joy both on and off the course; and about the sweet-swinging pupils whose swings he could remember and recognize without having seen them for thirty-odd years. He spends much of the book advising "the seasoned player" - whose seasoning is measured not in years but in experience on the links and at the practice tee. His highest praise goes not to any of the champions he trained or Hall of Famers he worked with but to his wife, Helen, who stood by him in thick and thin during his seven decades of service to the game he loved. And the book concludes with the tribute his son, Tinsley, paid him at a gathering of the world's best golf teachers during the week of the 1995 Ryder Cup.

Publishers Weekly

This is the last collaboration between Penick and Shrake (Little Red Book), since America's most famed golf coach died last year at age 90. Here, he restates the linchpin of his philosophy: namely, that golf is primarily a mental game and good shots are envisioned before they are made. But he also has valuable pointers on such matters as grip, stance, backswing and follow-through. However (and this may explain his greatness as a teacher), Penick has no hard-and-fast rules. On many occasions in this collection of anecdotes and bits of advice, he tells of encountering a beginner with unorthodox techniques who nonetheless posted great scores and advises such players never to let anyone fiddle with their games. Among Penick's favorite students in his last years were Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and Kathy Whitworth, so there seems no room for argument about his pedagogy, just as there is no disputing the love of the game conveyed in this memoir. (Apr.)

Contents

Foreword

The Dreamer Sees the Real Thing

What a Good Grip Can Do for You

Keeping the Edge

Point of View

Jackie's Way

Leaping Lucifer

The Natural

The Barbed Wire Line

Make the Course a Pleasure

Crushed by Crunch

Mental Cases

Where Your Hands Should Be

Rock Solid Putting

To the Finish

Have Fun

Matters of Style

Under Pressure

Sending For John

A Good Day at Cherry Hills

Your Game Can Fit the Course

Fairway Bunker Play

Greenside Bunkers

The Left Wrist

A Visit with Young Hal

Match Play

Bucket Head

Ezar the Wizard

The Boy from Missouri

Practice? What's That?

Jess Kept Playing

Counting Greens

Cotton on the Steel Shaft

Short Game Touch

So Use a Broom

The Right Way to Waggle

Learning Young

Advising Kirby

Helen, the Recruiter

Yoga

I Wonder Why

Pick It Up

The Great One's Tricks

Impact Drills

Try a Little Closer

A Grip Check

Reassurance

Jones's Rules and One More

Luck

A Word from the Wise

Get It Close

The Remarkable Cherry

Thumbing It

Waxo's Puzzle

The Cookie Bakers

Observation

The Initiation

The Path to Success

She Learned the Best Way

A Motto

Walter's Way

Forty More Yards for Bobby

The Lesson for Today

Be Mindful

Make It a Game

Three Most Common Faults

Fifty More Yards for John

Practice It First

Take It to the Course

The Gold Dust Twin

Treat the Easy Ones with Respect

Scholarships

Bibb's Cure for Lungers

You're on Your Own

His Money's Worth

Hit the Can

More Distance

Saving the Cow

Jimmy Would Have Changed His Grip

The First Team

Jimmie Connolly

Look Again

Hazards

Strike a Match

Not Quite Gentlemen

Salute froma Friend

Willie the Weeper

Too Far Forward

Ralph and Howard

Harvey Penick Award Dinner, 1994

A Mystery Is Solved

Solid

Check Your Hips

The Trouble with Money

Reading the Mountain

Good Putters Have Faith

In Byron's Prime

Who Is Talking Here?

Use a Tee

Charlie the Ballplayer

Brownie

For the Tall Player

Thoughts on Taking Dead Aim

A Bow to Jack O'Brien

Talking to Terry

The Bullfighter

Just an Inch or So

Born in Scotland

Memorial Park

Wild Bill

Horton and Lema

Horton and Grace

The "I" in Maxfli

Bob Watson

The Masters champion

Helen

Epilogue