Putting is a Form of Self-Torture: A Collection of Golf Articles

by Byron Kalies

‘Putting is a Form of Self-Torture’ contains 60 short articles covering a diverse range of golfing topics from insights to instruction, course reviews to philosophy. Each section contains a number of witty, interesting pieces written over the past 6 years. The book looks at the culture of golf, the nuances of golf, the joy of golf and above all the total absurdity of trying to get a spherical object of diameter 1.68 inches into a hole of 4.25 inches ( the size chosen only because the folks at Musselburgh invented, in 1829, the first known hole-cutter which happened to cut holes of 4.25 inches) which may be 600 yards away. The style is contemporary, original, amusing and true. It is the long-awaited follow up to 'Tenby to Celtic Manor' - a history of Golf in Wales.

264 pages, Paperback

Published July 21, 2016

About the author

Golf writer, photographer, poker player, golfer and now novelist. I have written, developed, bluffed, suffered and suffered, I have moved on from the relatively straightforward world of management and leadership writing with inferences of motivation, leadership skills, change matrices, decision making, communication, customer care, bottom lines, double-loop learning, stress, attribution theory, behavioural interviewing, project management, group think and Johnson and Scholes’ Cultural Web, to the complex and unfathomable world of describing grass and hitting a ball into a hole and now to the bizarre world of making things up and writing them down.

Golf / writing is frustrating, annoying, fun and, to be fair, of limited value in the important areas of our life; global warming, birth, world peace, relationships or helping people get along better – quite the opposite actually.

I have written for a number of golf publications including Golf International and am golf writer for Cambria Magazine. My book ‘Tenby to Celtic Manor: A History of Welsh Golf’ (2010) was an underground success in select parts of Cefn Fforest, but has not sold out totally and some copies can still be found on the back shelves of selected bookshops, newsagents, charity shops, alongside original copies of ‘Fly Fishing’ by J.R. Hartley.

Recent developments have seen me delve into the murky indoor world of poker. I have written a number of articles for magazines and am developing a deep interest in linking golf, Wales and poker.

My latest venture involves writing the great Welsh novel; The ‘Don Quixote’ for Dowlais; Notre Dame de Pentre; Crime and Punishment for Criccieth…. you get the idea.

My first stab at this is a crime / Golff Noir / Taff Noir novel set in the mythical Welsh village of Mynydd Eimon in a undefined date in the 1930s – 40s ish, Not a million degrees of separation from Mountain Ash at any time in the past 100 years. ( Link to opening chapter – http://byronkalies.wordpress.com/2014... )

Prior to attempting to write the great Welsh novel …………

I was a columnist and feature writer specialising in business and management, training and consultancy, psychology, tourism, sport, music, humour … and the 220 possible combinations of the above.

I was the author of Tales From the Front (HRD Press, U.S.A - and 25 Management Techniques in 90 minutes (MB2000), a contributing editor for C.I.O. (IDG Communications) and had written for a number of publications worldwide including:

Across The Board (U.S.A.), Business Day (South Africa), Career Times (Hong Kong), C.F.O. (Australia), Golf Today (U.S.A.), Management First (U.K.), Management Today (Australia), Marketing Magazine (N.Z.), Public Servant (U.K.), The Age (Australia), The Guardian (U.K.).

I am listed on the Writers of Wales database – http://www.literaturewales.org/writer...