Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine: The Curious Quest That Solved Golf

by Scott Gummer

The remarkable true story of a lone genius whose quest to unlock the science behind the perfect swing changed golf forever In 1939, Homer Kelley played golf for the first time and scored 116. Frustrated, he did not play again for six months; when he did he carded a 77. Determined to understand why he was able to shave nearly 40 strokes off his score, Kelley spent three decades of trial and error to unlock the answer and to recapture that one wonderful day when golf was easy and enjoyable. In 1969, Kelley self- published his findings in The Golfing The Computer Age Approach to Golfing Perfection. The bestselling instruction books of the day required golfers to conform their swings to the author's ideals, but Homer Kelley configured swings to fit every golfer. He found an enthusiastic disciple in a Seattle teaching pro named Ben Doyle, who in turn found an eager student in 13-year-old prodigy Bobby Clampett. Clampett's initial success in amateur golf shined a bright spotlight on Homer Kelley and The Golfing Machine, but when the young star suffered a painfully public collapse and faltered as a pro, critics were quick to blast Kelley and his complex and controversial ideas. With exclusive access to Homer Kelley's archives, author Scott Gummer paints a fascinating picture of the man behind the machine, the ultimate outsider who changed the game once and for all of us.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2009

Reviews

[Ciaran Conway · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read

I found this to be a very interesting story, well told by the author. Would have given it 5 stars if there was a bit more detail on the actual Golfing Machine book, but then I probably wouldn't have understood it anyway!

[PATRICIO BERRIOS ZEGERS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

Excelent book about homer kelley and other contemporary golf events and people good read now i will study the actual book golfching machine

[Joseph Naus · Rating 3 out of 5]

FIRST things first: "The Golfing Machine" by Homer Kelley is not available in ebook form on Amazon, which is unusual. So, when someone like myself searches for "The Golfing Machine" the only thing that pops us is this book, which as you can see from the thumbnail above, seems to be "Golfing Machine" and since it has the name Homer Kelley in the title AND is the only book that comes up under the search ... well ... you get the picture. Or maybe you don't. It's this: I thought I bought Homer Kelley's "The Golfing Machine" when I purchased this using my Kindle (it doesn't help that the Kindle has a small black and white screen too ...)

In any event, I read it, and it was mildly interesting. There really isn't enough content, let alone drama, to justify an entire book.

SPOILER: This guy was obsessed with golf and studied the golf swing from a technical point of view and wrote a technical book about the mechanics of the golf swing that broke new ground because such a technical book hadn't been written before.

The book, which is really a biography about a book and it's author and some of the author's friends and family, really didn't delve deep enough into Kelley's character, to really hold interest. The author spends a lot of time on tangents writing about the lineage and families of related characters, e.g. Bobby Clampett's mom and dad, etc.

The author, Scott Grummer, is a pretty good writer. He turns a phrase here and there, and he did a good job drawing a book out of not a whole lot of anything interesting.

As a golf nut who is technically minded, he did primer (warn) me about the book I really want to read. And, if there is any book that might need a book to preface it, it sounds like the Golfing Machine might be such a book.

If this review sounds a little catty, my apologies, but I feel like the guy who downloaded a song that was a cover of the song I really wanted to download, listened to it and thought, eehhh.

Now I'm off to read "The Golfing Machine".

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the book appeared to be all over the board. Author also did not delve into enough detail for some of the issues such as Homer's decision to sell this book and apparently it surmounted only to breaking even. Would have liked to have more information as to what the state of the Golfing Machine is today as well. All in all though, a good interesting read.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read and understanding of a mans search for golfing perfection.