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Percy Boomer "On Learning Golf" Group Forum: Last July I was in a used bookstore in Portland and found a copy of "On Learning Golf", by Percy Boomer. It is a book that puzzles me - like it's author, it's both famous and obscure: published in 1946, it's never been out of print, yet I had only heard of it peripherally, never read it, and knew no one who had read it - although I'm 55 years old, a golf nut who knows a lot of golf nuts. I know of only one pro who teaches Boomer - Rick Bradshaw in Florida mentions him on his website - and yet the first person inducted into the teaching Hall of Fame was Boomer. He's famous, and also unknown. How is that?

Well, over the last 10 months I've become deeply absorbed in that book, which I have come to believe is the finest golf instruction book I've ever read. I've tried to incorporate his ideas and think my ballstriking has significantly improved (although, as you might be able to understand if you've played golf, my handicap hasn't changed - I am still about a 3). My mantra on the course is to have no ideas except Percy's ideas, which I think are still entirely relevant to modern golf.

I'm curious as to whether or not anyone else has developed a similar interest in this book.

I see that this site is a haven for devotees of Hogan and 5 Lessons - I think the two books have something in common. Has anyone else noted this? Did Ben read Boomer? I've read that the book was studied by pros of that era. There is a drill I've seen on a Ben video on the Ed Sullivan show that seems to be right out of Boomer. If I knew how to do links I would link it, right here. Percy's ideas help your pivot, I think - it tightens the pivot, and speeds it up. That's why I'm striking it better, I believe. I see lots of people on this site are interested in the pivot. You might study Boomer. He doesn't just focus on one thing, however. His manner of teaching is to use "feels", starting with basic "feels" and then adding to them, becoming increasingly subtle; yet the feels never need be abandoned, and are all internally consistent. He teaches "the swing as a whole". His ideas on feeling the clubhead through the "force center" (in the pit of your back) not only connect his teaching to Ernest Jones, but are also positively Eastern, and especially intriguing coming from an Englishman 65 years ago.

Percy was a teacher, from a family of teachers. It is fascinating that his old man was schoolmaster on the Isle of Jersey, and taught (although from what I've read I'm not clear whether he taught them just schoolwork, or also golf) Harry Vardon and his brother Tom, and Ted Ray, and the several other top pros of that time, including Percy's little brother Aubrey, a perennial Ryder Cupper who finished second in an Open to Bobby Jones. His dad did build a golf course on the island, one that catered to the working class - the Germans functionally destroyed it in the War, but it was rebuilt by, I believe, Henry Cotton, a Sevam1 hero, and the European Seniors play there today. This is a little island off the coast of France, miles from Scotland, then the center of the golfing world - and yet Jersey was to golf, then, what San Pedro De Macoris of the Dominican Republic is to baseball, now. Strange stuff.

Anyone else interested in the Boomer?

Percy Boomer on Learning Golf Forum