Golf in the Kingdom-A different View

[Dan Kelly]

"claptrap" and "incoherent" have not been used to describe "Amen Corner," but that's publishing.

Rick,

Is it publishing or is it marketing, or is there a difference?

If your book is "the perfect airplane read for a golf trip," is it on any airport bookshelves? (It certainly should be...)

My guess is: No. And it won't be, because it wouldn't sell enough copies to justify its place in such prime retail cubic inches. (I should say: They're not confident that it would sell enough copies to justify its place in such prime retail cubic inches. Who's to say what might happen if it were, in fact, given those cubic inches?)

C'est la guerre.

[Dan King]

Put me down as a fan of Golf in the Kingdom. But then that probably proves Wayne Morrison's theory.

Cheers,
Dan King

I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me.
 --Hunter S. Thompson

[Mark Bourgeois]

There's a big difference between reading a book stoned and reading one while on LSD.

We sure do seem to have a lot of experts here.

(Multiple emoticons omitted.)

I thought "A Separate Reality" was ALL about golf!

Just asking -- not meant as anything but an observation -- but, Dan, if you are opposed to emoticons on the grounds that language should suffice, then why not use language instead of the long-winded equivalent of an emoticon, which is how I interpret "multiple emoticons omitted"?

Rick, the good thing about holding down the 400,462 spot is that you probably could leap 100,000 spots just if you buy on copy!

Mark

[paul cowley]

Great.....now I bet you guys are going to tell me Castenedas's Don Juan the sorcerer wasn't a real person too .

Oh, and have a nice day.

[Rich Goodale]

Bob

I not only admit to liking the book, I actually read the whole thing!  I found it a few months after my first visit to the golfing shrines of Scotland in 1978, and the book resonated with my warm and fresh memories of that 3-week journey.  To me it is as good a description of what golf in Scotland was like at the grassroots level before it became known in the wider golfing world.  There really were Irons' and MacIvers and Listons in those days, in just about any club, from the hidden gems to the Open venues.  In fact, I'm getting so misty-eyed remembering the feelings I had when I read it, I think I'll sit down and read it again in a few weeks, when I have the time.

The latter half is a bit abstruse, but you have to go with the flow, and need drugs only if you are lacking imagination and/or a true love for the game.  There is some interesting stuff about the concept of the hole and the whiteness of the ball, and the mental aspect of the game and of life.  Murphy influenced Tim Galwey who wrote the only golf instruction book I ever felt to be of value, and introduced me and many other readers to Arnold Haultain, whom we all know to be the thinking man's Max Behr.

As I continue to write and think now I'm getting so mellow that it doesn't even bother me that I am agreeing with Huckaby.  Be the ball, brothers.

Rich

[Doug Wright]

Doug,

You can't talk about one without the other. I have a wonderful publisher, but they can't do much in the way of marketing -- nothing like the big houses. My publisher told me they can't get my book into airport bookstores, because it hasn't sold enough -- and it hasn't sold enough because, in part, it isn't in airport bookstores.

That's publishing.

Rick,

I think you should send a copy to Oprah (if you haven't already...).

[Peter Pallotta]

Rick - you're sure right about the sequel. Based on the comments so far, a likely blurb for the next edition is: "Mystical...Fun....The Holy Grail".  

Bob Huntley - you have played golf with Dean Martin at Riviera AND remember Essalen in the 60s. In the words of J.J. Hunsecker from "Sweet Smell of Success": "I'm a schoolboy, Sidney, teach me, teach me".

Peter

[Doug Wright]

Maybe this thread title should be changed to:

"Can a book be great if most people don't like it."

[Dan Kelly]

Just asking -- not meant as anything but an observation -- but, Dan, if you are opposed to emoticons on the grounds that language should suffice, then why not use language instead of the long-winded equivalent of an emoticon, which is how I interpret "multiple emoticons omitted"?

Mark --

If there were any way to have made my wisecrack about Kirk Gill's expertise in the effects of various illegal substances without risking someone's thinking that I intended some serious commentary thereby, I'd have dispensed not only with emoticons, but with my "long-winded equivalent." (How's that for long-winded! I could have just said )

I oppose emoticons -- which is not to say they're never useful ... and occasionally necessary!  

Dan  

[John Kirk]

However, if the book can enlighten golfers (or those who play golf) to some of the mysteries, I see no reason to belittle them.

There's no mystery in golf.  Just like there's no crying in baseball.

Maybe there's intrigue, but definitely no mystery.  I'm digging on the intrigue.

[Dan Kelly]

The latter half is a bit abstruse, but you have to go with the flow, and need drugs only if you are lacking imagination and/or a true love for the game.

I guess I'm lacking imagination. But I already knew that. And I'm not good at going with the flow.

But the second half of your speculation about what we're lacking, Rich ... why, them's fightin' words!

[Rich Goodale]

Dan

I used the "and/or" construction just for you!

John Kirk

That statement of yours is as mysterious as it gets.  Get a grip on yourself!

Rich

[John Kirk]

I may need to get a grip, but I am enjoying myself immensely as I descend.  After taking a shot at a top 1 modern course, would there be any other choice?

[Peter Pallotta]

Rich
I think we've discussed Haultain's "Mystery of Golf" before. Believe me, I'm a sucker for that kind of writing, on just about any subject under the sun - but Haultain just doesn't do it for me.  I think it just struck me why that is: it's because he writes about the mysteries of golf with so little genuine mystery and magic that I understood everything he was trying to say (and all the 'mysteries' he kept alluding to) by about by page 12. Somehow, I'd have thought the 'mysteries' would've lingered longer in my thoughts and thinking.

Also, he somehow lacked 'authority', i.e. reading him, I felt something like I'd imagine you would if I wrote a huge book about the mysteries of TOC about a half hour after having played it for my first time.  

Now Behr, on the other hand, that to me is like trying to read Hegel (I say "trying to read" because I dropped that course about half way through).  

Peter

[Rich Goodale]

Peter

See if you can find the "GCA Celebrity Death Match--Behr vs. Haultain" thread from 2003, when GolfClubAtlas was a kinder, gentler place....

Rich

[Phil McDade]

Doug,

You can't talk about one without the other. I have a wonderful publisher, but they can't do much in the way of marketing -- nothing like the big houses. My publisher told me they can't get my book into airport bookstores, because it hasn't sold enough -- and it hasn't sold enough because, in part, it isn't in airport bookstores.

That's publishing.

Where's Yossarian when you need him?

[George Pazin]

The fact that Rich liked it is the final nail in the coffin for me - and you have my permission to use that on the book jacket as well.

[Noel Freeman]

If you didnt like Golf in the Kingdom, the sequel will make even harder reading..

One caveat, A friend of Michael Murphy who has also taught Golf in the Kingdom classes at Esalen is a great read and a great teacher if you can work with him..

Fred Shoemaker-- Extraordinary Golf and Extraordinary Putting.. He may be the true Shivas Irons.

BTW, I've heard that Quantum Golf was written about the teaching pro TJ Tomasi.. I once took some lessons with him and he winked when I asked him about that.. TJ is into brain research and science though not exactly meta physics..

[Bob_Huntley]

Fred Shoemaker-- Extraordinary Golf and Extraordinary Putting.. He may be the true Shivas Irons.

Fred Shoemaker not only is into the mental side of the game but probably is as good a shotmaker as anyone. At about 150lbs, or less, few golfers can hit it past him. He lives about a mile or so away from me and gives clinics at MPCC from time to time.

Bob

[Doug Wright]

The fact that Rich liked it is the final nail in the coffin for me - and you have my permission to use that on the book jacket as well.

C'mon George.

Tom Huckaby + Rihc Goodale= Real Men of Genius.  

[Noel Freeman]

Fred Shoemaker-- Extraordinary Golf and Extraordinary Putting.. He may be the true Shivas Irons.
Bob-

The best I ever hit the ball in my life, it was just Fred and I on the range..He made some subtle Socratic like advice thru asking me questions... If I had a golf in the kingdom experience that was it, because at that moment i felt i could hit it high,low, draw, fade, cut, hook, straight..

Fred Shoemaker not only is into the mental side of the game but probably is as good a shotmaker as anyone. At about 150lbs, or less, few golfers can hit it past him. He lives about a mile or so away from me and gives clinics at MPCC from time to time.

Bob

[Kirk Gill]

If there were any way to have made my wisecrack about Kirk Gill's expertise in the effects of various illegal substances without risking someone's thinking that I intended some serious commentary thereby, I'd have dispensed not only with emoticons, but with my "long-winded equivalent."

That's "alleged" expertise.

[Tom Huckaby]

Rihc, agreeing with me is a beautiful thing.  First step you, next step Mucci, then I conquer the world.

Now, for the amusement of Doug Wright, as he nervously awaits tonight's first pitch....

Bold is announcer, italics is singer.


BUD LIGHT PRESENTS, REAL MEN OF GENIUS

real men of genius.....

HERE'S TO YOU, MR. ENJOYS SILLY GOLF BOOKS ABOUT SCOTLAND AND OTHER MYSTICAL THINGS OF LIFE LIKE GOODALE AND HUCKABY-ER

Mr. enjoys silly golf books about Scotland and other mystical things in life like Goodale and Huckaby-er....

YOU READ A BOOK THAT EVERYONE SEEMS TO HATE, AND THAT DOESN'T BUG YOU - YOU FIND A LOT TO LIKE ABOUT IT.  THAT JUST MAKES YOUR FRIENDS CONFIRM THEIR HATRED.. AND THAT THEY SHOULD HATE IT MATTERS NOT TO YOU, IN FACT IT MAKES YOU SMILE.

My friends all think I'm a wacko....

So here's to you, oh lover of odd golf books.  Don't let the bastards get you down - we know you won't.

Mr. enjoys silly golf books about Scotland and other mystical things in life like Goodale and Huckaby-er....

[Doug Wright]

Rihc, agreeing with me is a beautiful thing.  First step you, next step Mucci, then I conquer the world.

Now, for the amusement of Doug Wright, as he nervously awaits tonight's first pitch....

Bold is announcer, italics is singer.


BUD LIGHT PRESENTS, REAL MEN OF GENIUS

real men of genius.....

HERE'S TO YOU, MR. ENJOYS SILLY GOLF BOOKS ABOUT SCOTLAND AND OTHER MYSTICAL THINGS OF LIFE LIKE GOODALE AND HUCKABY-ER

Mr. enjoys silly golf books about Scotland and other mystical things in life like Goodale and Huckaby-er....

YOU READ A BOOK THAT EVERYONE SEEMS TO HATE, AND THAT DOESN'T BUG YOU - YOU FIND A LOT TO LIKE ABOUT IT.  THE FACT THAT MAKES YOUR FRIENDS CONFIRM THEIR HATRED.. AND THAT THEY SHOULD HATE IT MATTERS NOT TO YOU, IN FACT IT MAKES YOU SMILE.

My friends all think I'm a wacko....

So here's to you, oh lover of odd golf books.  Don't let the bastards get you down - we know you won't.

Mr. enjoys silly golf books about Scotland and other mystical things in life like Goodale and Huckaby-er....

Thanks Tom, I needed that--as you would say, audible yuks.

[John_Cullum]

I withdraw my earlier statements. There may be no hope for Huck

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