Golfing Machine : The Curious Quest That Solved Golf

The remarkable story of a curious genius whose lifelong quest to unlock the science behind the perfect golf swing changed the game forever.

In 1939, an average Joe named Homer Kelley played golf for the first time and scored 116-a respectable score for a beginner, but frustrating for a science-minded perfectionist like Kelley. He did not play again for six months; then when he did, he carded a seventy-seven. Vexed, he grew increasingly obsessed and devoted over the next thirty years to solving the science behind the perfect golf swing, self-publishing his findings in 1969 in a book titled The Golfing Machine. This revolutionary book explained golf, unlike every other tome that merely described it. Unfortunately, the majority of golfers dismissed the book because it was all but unreadable, too thick with physics and geometry and scientific vernacular. The Golfing Machine seemed doomed to obscurity until visionary teacher Ben Doyle and superstar-in-the-making Bobby Clampett brought Kelley's teachings to prominence-only to witness Clampett implode on golf's most public stage. Validation finally came seventy years after Homer Kelley's lifework began, and twenty-five years after his death, when a teenage prodigy named Morgan Pressel became the youngest golfer, male or female, ever to win a major championship.

In Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine, veteran journalist Scott Gummer brings to light the untold story of golf's most curious genius. A colorful portrait of obsession and an enlightening look into the nuances of the game, Kelley's amazing journey illuminates an important but underappreciated chapter in the history of golf.

Scott Gummer has written for more than forty different magazines, including Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, LIFE, Fortune, Departures, Golf Digest, GOLF, and Travel + Leisure Golf. He is also the author of The Seventh at St. Andrews. He lives, works, and plays a middling game of golf in the California wine country.