Book Review: Inside, Outside And On The Ropes
Last Updated on Sunday, 22 April 2012 00:17 Saturday, 21 April 2012 23:58
by Keith Gockenbach
South Nine Publishing, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Published in 2011, $17.95
Review by Alfie Lau. www.twitter.com/AlfieLau
I'd never heard of Keith Gockenbach before I read his book and now I'm hoping he makes a comeback.
Gockenbach held a normal job until he became eligible for the Champions Tour. But with the encouragement of wife Lynn, he quit his job in 2004 and had a two, then three-year plan to succeed on the Champions Tour.
Sounds like an easy plan until you find out there are multitudes ofmini-tours for the over-40 set, many of which open and close before you know they even exist.
Gockenbach tells the story of his middling success and failure and even though the ending isn't what he had hoped for, you can tell that Gockenbach is happy that he doesn't have to answer the question 'What if?'
Gockenbach qualifies for a U.S. Senior Open and a British Senior Open and his tales from those tourneys are probably the highlight of the book because they show that success was attainable.
Not so good are the seemingly endless tales of how close Gockenbach comes to qualifying, pre-qualifying and pre-pre-qualifying yes, the seniors circuit makes it hard for dreamers only to have something unfortunate happen to him on the golf course.
If anything, what Gockenbach's story tells anybody who thinks they're good enough for tournament golf is that you still probably need to get better.
After all, it's not just on the regular PGA Tour that the mantra, 'These guys are good!' applies.
