Bad golf books sucking passion from game

Bob Thomas knows what’s wrong with golf. According to Thomas, author of Ben Hogan’s Secret, it is not money, time, or access, as most commentators suggest.

”It’s a lack of passion,” explains Thomas.

Thomas goes on to place the blame for this lack of passion squarely at the foot of golf publishers. “Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book sold 3.5 million copies,” says Thomas. “Can you imagine any golf book creating that much passion for the game today?”

Thomas’s own experiences with major publishers has lead him to call the business “corrupt.” He tells the story of one publisher who accused him of having “too much passion for the game.” Yet another publisher calmly explained to Thomas how he, “knew all about golf.” “I watch it one Sunday a month on television,” he said, dismissing Thomas and the game he is so passionate about with a wave of his hand – a hand that had hardly ever worn a golf glove.

Thomas feels that, “There are only one or two good golf books published each year.” The reason for this, he contends, is that publishers treat golf writers so badly. Not only do they not understand the game, but they “rob the authors blind.”

Here’s what he means: Say there is a book that retails for $15. It wholesales for half of that. The golf book distributors (shady guys who have their fingers clenched tightly around the very arteries by which books flow out to readers) will offer something like $3 a book in return for distributing the books to major bookstores. “This leaves no money for the publishers to promote the books, or for the authors,” Thomas explains.

”You ever wonder why so many golf books come out by first-time authors, who never write another one?” he asks. “Because they are embittered about getting ripped off.”

There are 27 million golfers in America today. The vast majority of golf books on the market are instructional books whose main purpose is to tell golfers how bad their swings are and all the work they need to do to enjoy the game. Worse yet, they are written in dry, uninspiring prose. Not exactly the sort of thing to engender passion in readers.

And if a golfer doesn’t have passion, it doesn’t matter how long a round takes or how much it costs. He or she won’t be a golfer very much longer.