One classic is the teachings of Harvey Penick. "Harvey Penick's Little Red Book". It has a bit of all three of the things you listed, theory, strategy, and history. Legionary instructor of Ben Crenshaw and Tome Kite.

Bob Rotella for mental strategy!

Just finished reading - “A Course Called Scotland: Searching the Home of Golf for the Secret to Its Game” - by Tom Coyne. Well written and very informative about experiencing many of Scotland’s highly touted as well as less known courses.

Rotella, Golf is not a game of perfect. Very good book on psychological aspects!

For swing theory, Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons......" is hard to beat. So is George Knudson's "The Natural Golf Swing". However, for a raw beginner, Bob Mann's "Automatic Golf" may be the simplest way to learn how to swing a club.

Jack's "Golf My Way"

It's not necessarily a "book" but "The Golfers Journal" is a great magazine subscription. Its sponsored by Titleist and Scotty Cameron.

The Four Foundations of Golf
by Jon Sherman

where to start:
The golf machine
anything by Bob Rotella relating to the mental game
Ben hogans 5 lessons is always a classic
preferred lies
and if you want something specific for st andrews both 'in the footsteps of Old Tom Morris and a comfort blanket for the hapless golfer is a great comical read

I like the Rotella book Your 15th club. Really good at structuring your thinking.

Jack Nicklaus did a book that was more like a comic book than lots of text that broke down the different parts of the game in a way that was easy to understand and implement. I've seen it on Amazon and at some bookstores. Jack was big on mastering the fundamentals and this book helps people understand how to do that.

A book that I enjoyed reading was "The Green Road Home". Michael Bamberger who is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated wrote this book at age 24 when he decided to caddy for a season on the PGA Tour for a season in the mid 1980's and write about his experiences. It's very entertaining and a look into caddying on the Tour long before players earned the money they do today.

Jack Nicklaus "Golf My way"
Erika Larkin "A True Swing"
Bob Rotella Books


DM

Thanks everyone!

Thanks this gives me books to read while waiting on the kids to get out of school. Im gonna look for Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons. Sounds like a good read.