15 Great Vintage Golf Books, Judged Purely By Cover

At this point, it’s quite clear that John Waters is the Confucius of our time. He’s blessed us with countless bits of wisdom, but my favorite is as follows: ”If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't **** them.” But allow me to add another layer of filtering: if they don’t have books with well designed covers, don’t **** them. There is no greater turnoff than approaching a full bookcase only to be greeted by a bunch of boringly fonted spines. Luckily for golf lovers, there are mountains of funkily covered first edition reads that’ll instantly spice up our home libraries and potentially improve our games. Here are some of my favorites…

1. Babe Didrikson’s Championship Golf (1948)
   Is it me or do the black and white cutouts scattered around the cover give 90’s zine?

2. Ben Hogan’s Power Golf (1948)
   For the in-your-face font and background color.

3. Gene Sarazen’s Thirty Years of Championship Golf (1950)
   Very dated shade of green but it’s got a classic title font.

4. Walter Hagen’s The Walter Hagen Story (1956)
   The 40’s really did love a black and white cutout.

5. Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf (1957)
   On the bland side, but the image of him mid-grip, demonstrating one the most valuable tips he ever gave us, feels special.

6. Louise Suggs’s Golf for Women (1960)
   The black and white cutout lasted for decades, apparently.

7. Arnold Palmer’s Golf Book (1961)
   Oh look, another black and white cutout.

8. Sam Snead’s On Golf (1961)
   Font so ‘60s it hurts. You know what? Stay tuned—this man’s books deserve their own post.

9. Gary Player’s Play Golf with Player: Instruction on Every Aspect of the Game (1962)
   Probably biased toward the lime green color it shares with a certain logo…

10. Sam Snead’s The Education of a Golfer (1962)
    A faceless golf ball wearing a fedora—need I say more? Wait… is he the great-grandfather of Malbon’s Buckets mascot?

11. Mickey Wright’s Play Golf the Wright Way (1962)
    Yet another cutout but the curved title is unique.

12. Chi Chi Rodriguez’s Secrets of Power Golf (1967)
    Love that the publisher felt it necessary to put the name Chi Chi twice on one cover.

13. Lee Trevino’s Groove Your Golf Swing My Way (1976)
    It’s not from the ‘70s if it doesn’t have a prismic rainbow on it.

14. Jane Blalock’s The Guts to Win (1977)
    It’s also not from the ‘70s unless the photo is so deeply sepia you can barely make out the subject and her low pigtails.

15. Maxine Van Evera’s Building Your Swing for Better Golf with Amy Alcott (1981)
    Not fully authored by a tour pro, but it’s got an amazing second wave feminist vibe to it so on the list it goes.