Publicity:
Joanne McCall
(503) 642-4191
email
Marketing:
Integrated Book Marketing
Sharon Castlen
(631) 979-5990
email
Distribution:
Greenleaf Book Group
4425 S. Mopac Expway, Suite 600
Austin, TX 78735
(800) 932-5420
Publisher:
Pick It Up Publishing
PO Box 3667
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816
email
Available March 2009 everywhere books are sold.
Available to the trade through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and directly from Greenleaf Book Company (800-932-5420)
ISBN: 978-0-9815319-5-3,
Hardcover, Sports & Recreation
“Golf, Naked tells it like it really is. This is the stuff that every golfer needs to know.” – Rich Beem, 2002 PGA Champion
“There’s so much more to golf than your score. Golf, Naked teaches you how to ace the rest of the game. It’s flat-out brilliant.” – Andrew Magee, PGA Tour Golfer, host of The Golf Channel’s ‘Big Break’
“In a voice that’s part mischievous frat boy and part Zen teacher, Rowley tells funny stories and dispenses helpful advice. Along the way, he also manages to impart something useful not only about golf – but about life itself.” – David Kilmer, CDA Press
“Golf, Naked is a creative, entertaining, informative and very different golf book.” – Tom Perry, PGA Tour headquarters
“Greg is a decent son. His book turned out better than we expected.” – Sandra Rowley, Greg’s mom, lousy golfer and marginal cook
“This book does everyone in our industry a huge favor. Every golfer – regardless of their ability or level of experience – should read this book.” – Brent Buckman, Club Manager, Spanish Oaks, Austin, TX
“Golf, Naked is an excellent reference for the newer golfer and should help educate future golfers for years to come.” – Rex Schultz, PGA Head Professional, Esmerelda Golf Course, Spokane, WA
“This book says the things that all Pros wish our members knew, but don’t like telling them ourselves. Golf, Naked does the dirty work for me in a way that’s fun for the reader.” – Chad Stoddard, PGA Head Professional, Broken Top Club, Bend, OR
“Golf, Naked is a perfect tool for new golfer orientation. There’s simply nothing like it out there – and it’s laugh-out-loud funny.” – Rainer Gehres, former club manager at Riviera in Los Angeles and Waverly in Portland
“Reading Golf, Naked definitely helped me feel more comfortable at the local golf club that I recently joined. At first I felt like a bull in a china shop, now I feel like I really belong.” – Adam Deadmarsh, NHL star, Stanley Cup winner and Olympic Silver Medalist
“In golf, I find much of the same satisfaction that I did as a professional skier. Golf, Naked puts into words something I’d only previously felt: Golf, to me, is a feeling – not the final score.” – Josh Loubek, Professional Skier, Winter X Games Head Judge
“What a great book!” – Len Zamora, PGA Director of Golf, The Mirabel Club, Scottsdale, AZ
Golf, Naked in the News
Golf, Naked Has Something For Everyone.
The Coeur d'Alene Press - 4/12/08
Local Pro Bares All About Golf In New Book.
The Spokesman-Review - 5/10/08
CdA Author Rowley Relishes First Book’s Success
The Coeur d'Alene Press -11/28/08
Golf, Naked Video Segments
Golf, Naked - The Bare Essentials Revealed
Golf, Naked - Who the Book Is For
Golf, Naked - Tip #1 - How to Play Golf for Newbies
Golf, Naked - Tip #2 - Getting Partners Involved
Golf, Naked Audio Segments
Behind The Book Podcast - Short
Behind The Book Podcast - Long
Interview with 92.9 KZZU in Spokane, WA -8/22/08
Interview with Golf Talk Live on WNTP in Philadelphia -02/14/09
Podcast with Dave Berner at Travelgolf.com
Golf, Naked Has Something For Everyone.
April 12th article from The Coeur d'Alene Press
By Rod Harwood
Staff writer
His mom says he's a decent guy and the book turned out better than she expected.
Former Av and Stanley Cuphoister Adam Deadmarsh says the book shows the same love for the sport that all athletes feel regardless of the game.
PGA Champion Rich Beem says it tees it up and stripes a 300-yard boomer down the middle.
Not since that documented day in April of 1997 when he shot 103 in his first pro-am as an assistant pro at Hayden Lake Country Club has golf professional Greg Rowley felt quite this exposed.
There's less of a fear factor in teeing it up at Pebble Beach.
He's a former director of golf at The Club at Black Rock, assistant golf professional at Hayden Lake Country Club and learned his trade at The Quarry at La Quinta in California.
Now he's going to find out how all that translates when his first book comes off the press.
"Golf, Naked - The Bare Essentials Revealed" is expected to be out in the next four to six weeks.
"I didn't have any form of a junior or amateur golf career of any kind. I was just an athlete that picked it up as I went along. So it sort of fell in my lap," said Rowley, who is a 1992 Post Falls High School and 1996 University of Idaho graduate.
"I was the pied piper of the country club for awhile there after that first tournament. I've given hundreds of junior lessons and that was how I learned the game for myself, and as a teacher. I remember my first golf lesson - Charlie Chadderdon - like it was yesterday and now he's going off to college."
"Golf, Naked" is part philosophy, part instruction, part story-telling, shaped into a body of work designed to reach the scratch golfers to the 25-handicappers.
"Denny Ryerson, who's a member at Black Rock, and I were sitting around having cocktails one night and he said, 'You know what we need is someone to tell us beginners how not to look stupid.'" Rowley said. "That was how the whole thing started.
"The writing process began as a really extensive outline. I just kept working on the outline forever until it eventually went from outline into sentences and then paragraphs."
From Ground Zero came a section on developing an efficient pre-shot routine, grip, putting suggestions, how to play sidehill lies - rules, regulations and other assorted information - along with stories from golf trips to Ireland.
There's also stuff like proper etiquette in changing from street shoes to golf spikes.
"You want to change your shoes in the men's locker room at a high-end course and sitting in the trunk in the parking lot at a low-end course," Rowley writes.
Now, that of course, would assume I'm not going to play in the shoes I drove up in.
What do I know, I believe Jack Nicklaus could shoot 72 in high-top Converses with hickory-shafted clubs, but that's another story.
He created Pick It Up Publishing for this project which involves Ryerson as CEO; his brother Jeff Rowley, production design; illustrator, Jeremy Deming and editor, David Kilmer.
It's a self-published project and they expect to print 10,000 copies to start. Rowley says an estimated 25 percent is already pre-sold. They will, of course, have it available in local golf shops and businesses. I'm not sure how they intend to expand the market outside the golf community, but I expect they have a plan to put it in the mainstream fairway as time unfolds.
Golf, Naked is a good read, goofy in places, informative in others, it's like golf itself - there's something for everyone.
If you get nothing else out of the book, go to page 223 where he says, "Embrace Your Tendencies - Don't Fight Them."
"If your tendency is to hit a cut, then hit a cut. If you naturally hit a hook, then hook it all day. Embrace it and rely on it. Don't try to change it on the course. The range is for working on technique. When you're done working, leave it on the range. Whatever your particular habit at game time, you should be ready to accept it, expect it and play it."
Of course he doesn't address playing that cut fade over the highway with the idea it's coming back inbounds. Maybe he can touch on that in the sequel.
Local Pro Bares All About Golf In New Book
May 10th article from The Spokesman-Review
By Jim Meehan
Staff writer
Ah, nothing like making a quality first impression.
That's precisely what Greg Rowley the author does when he writes about
Greg Rowley the apprentice golf professional and his first day on the
job.
On the first page of his new book "Golf: Naked, The Secrets of Golf -
Revealed," Rowley details the 1997 Hayden Lake Country Club men's
opening-day tournament. Rowley was plugged in as the foursome's "A"
player (read: best) when somebody didn't show. He confesses to shooting
103 and whacking an errant shot off a passing motorist. Despite little
help from the pro, Rowley's team still won the event and he took a ton
of ribbing.
The story immediately puts the reader, whether they're a two-handicap or
a golf neophyte, at ease and sets the tone for a funny, informative book
that touches on nearly every aspect of the game.
And we do mean every aspect. Like how to name your league team, how to
avoid wardrobe malfunctions (try to match the color of your belt, socks,
shoes), how to properly tee a ball up (pinky in vs. pinky out), how a
divot pattern should look on a grass driving range (bunched, not spaced) and how to work the table at the 19th hole.
There's an accompanying booklet that explains betting games. It's
roughly the same size as a rules book and eventually will have a
weatherproof cover for storage purposes inside your bag.
The project took about 14 months of writing, editing, rewriting and
reorganizing to complete. Rowley hopes to have 5,000 copies available at
area golf shops by Father's Day and he's signed on with Greanleaf Book
Group for a planned September release date.
Rowley said the idea was hatched over a cocktail or two with Denny
Ryerson, a member at The Club at Black Rock who also assisted with
financial backing of the book, when each would recount "all the dumb
stuff" they'd done when they began playing golf.
"I felt there was a hole in the market as far as real advice from a golf
pro," said Rowley, who writes that he stepped down as the pro at Black
Rock in 2006 because he hadn't seen his two daughters awake in weeks and
his wife was tired of being a single parent.
The result isn't an instruction manual, but a guide to truly enjoying a
game that so often can be frustrating for participants. He writes about
personal foibles and those of others, weaving them into the nuts and
bolts of the book along with quotes, anecdotes, older brother Jeff's
graphics and Jeremy Deming's illustrations.
The combination makes for a quick, entertaining read that still gets his
points across.
"I wanted to make sure that I wasn't telling everybody what to do, but
this is what I've learned along the way," said Rowley, who said the
title of the book was suggested by his physical therapist. "Even at the
perceived level of expertise my career would suggest, we're all
beginners every day and hopefully the reader will identify with that."
To that end, Rowley often pokes fun at himself. At his Playing Ability
Test (PAT), Rowley wore a hooded jacket to counter heavy winds. Teeing
off on No. 2, a gust of wind kicked up the hood and it became entangled
with the shaft of the club. As he continued his swing, part of his
jacket slid over his head ( Rowley writes, "Like a hockey player getting
the bad end of a beating"). He paced off a 9-foot drive that barely
cleared the tee box.
Three pages later, Rowley described a memorable lesson with a married
couple that took a turn for the worse when the wife hit a low bullet
that struck a bird. Rattled but moving forward with the lesson, the
husband followed with another low screamer that hit a duck.
Rowley offers insights to the typical problems golfers encounter:
dealing with the boorish playing partner, speeding up the pace of play,
identifying sandbaggers and keeping your cool after dumping three
straight into the pond.
A Mark Twain quote assists the section on sandbaggers: "It's better to
deserve honors and not have them, than to have them and not deserve
them." Rowley clarifies the role of operator error in wayward shots. "A
golf ball is like a perfect child - it always does exactly what it's
told," he writes. "So rather than react brutishly after a bad shot, ask
yourself how well you communicated your intent."
Rowley doubts he'll return to working behind the desk at a pro shop any
day soon. He's already outlining a second book, which will pick up where
this one left off. It'll be more technical, instruction-driven.
There's even talk about a "Golf: Naked" series of books, which would
give the author a chance to make a quality lasting impression.
CdA Author Rowley Relishes First Book’s Success
November 28th article from The Coeur d'Alene Press
By David Kilmer
Golfing naked is not easy.
Writing about it is even harder.
Greg Rowley, Coeur d’Alene golf pro turned author, will discuss both during a special book signing event this Saturday from 1-3 p.m. at Hastings.
Rowley’s new book, “Golf: Naked - The Bare Essentials Revealed,” is an insider’s guide to of one of America’s favorite pastimes from a unique perspective.
“I’ve seen people do some amazingly terrible things on a golf course,” he said. “That’s because golf has its own strange language and customs. It’s an unfamiliar country for most of us.”
The author has set out to change all that in an unconventional volume with chapters such as “Gas Guzzlers, Grease Monkeys and Golf Swings,” “Sweat the Small Stuff,” and “The Usual Suspects.” In a voice that’s part mischievous frat boy and part Zen teacher, Rowley tells funny stories and dispenses helpful advice. Along the way, he also manages to impart something useful not only about golf – but about life itself.
“'Golf: Naked' tells it like it really is,” said Rich Beem, 2002 PGA Champion. “This is the stuff that every golfer needs to know.”
The book was born during Rowley’s stint as the head pro at the Club at Black Rock, where he was once named by Men’s Journal as having one of the “50 Best Jobs in America.”
At Black Rock, he met Denny Ryerson, a successful businessman who was first a client, then a friend. After rounds of golf, the men would tell stories over a bottle of wine. Turns out, they both had an idea for a unique book about the sport – the same book, as it turns out, told from two different perspectives. Ryerson convinced Rowley to write the thing – and gave him the backing to do so. Despite the fact that, as Rowley says, the only thing he’d ever written was a Christmas letter, the new author accomplished the formidable task in about 14 months.
“Denny changed my life,” he said. “This has been a most excellent adventure.”
It's safe to say his book is like no other golfing manual. The author has filled 'Golf: Naked' with interesting characters and personal anecdotes, making for a wildly entertaining read. Color photographs of some of golf's most beautiful courses line its pages, as well as vivid, whimsical illustrations by Jeremy Deming, a graphic designer from Coeur d'Alene.
The book is designed to be equally interesting for golfers and non-golfers alike. All copies have a limited "collector's edition" cover, and are on sale from now through the holidays.
Rowley graduated from Post Falls High School in 1992. He is a 1996 graduate of the University of Idaho, where, as his book jacket bio says, he “majored in lots of things and eventually graduated with a degree in Psychology.” His golf career began as an assistant pro at the Hayden Lake Country Club. He has helped to manage some of the finest golf facilities in the U.S., and has earned several awards for his innovative programs.
The author lives in Coeur d’Alene with his wife Jill and their two daughters. He is at work on another book.