Making the Turn: A Year Inside the PGA Senior Tour [Hardcover]

Frank Beard (Author), Frank Garrity (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1992

The first honest account of life on the Senior Tour--one of the most successful and prestigious golf events the PGA schedules each year. Frank Beard, a top player himself who has seen and lived through it all, provides a no-holds-barred look at what the players on the Tour really think of each other and the intensity of the competition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beard was a success on the PGA Tour, scoring 11 tournament victories between 1963 and 1971 and coauthoring the book Pro about his 1969 season. Now he returns with an account of his 1991 season on the Senior Tour, giving details about what Sports Illustrated golf writer Garrity, using a felicitous phrase, calls "life's back nine." Their book is less felicitous. If Beard is not the most self-aborbed person playing the links game, he must come close. We read about his perfectionism, his concern about his alcoholism (now apparently under control), his response to columns he wrote for Golf World magazine, his feelings about how he fared as a TV commentator, his pleasure at the changed attitude of children toward him, and so forth.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A sports announcer once commented that professional golfers on the men's tour were the most boring group of people he'd ever met because all they ever talked about was money--a point amply borne out by the author, whose favorite word in this book is . . . money. Beard sounds as though he doesn't have a dime in this world, despite his being the leading money winner on the PGA tour in 1969 and earning $500,000 in fewer than two years on the PGA Senior tour, a successful new event featuring players over 50. Beard captures the reader's interest with frank discussions of his struggle to overcome alcohol abuse, his second marriage, and his bitterness toward Jack Nicklaus, who designs courses to suit his own game and takes a somewhat light-hearted view of the senior tour. Beard, by contrast, often sounds self-pitying, although this well-written book (co-authored by a Sports Illustrated golf reporter) has its moments.
- Jim Paxman, Tennessee State Univ., Nashville
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (June 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025080601
• ISBN-13: 978-0025080607
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,515,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Account of the Senior Tour, November 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Making the Turn: A Year Inside the PGA Senior Tour (Hardcover)

This is a great read from one of the players themselves at the time. So, he's no Trevino or Palmer. Frank was a solid player (11 regular Tour wins, I think) during his regular Tour years and has proven himself admirably behind the mike for years with ESPN. He's a stand-up guy who tells it like it is.

If you want to know what it's like inside the ropes with the over 50 Tour set, read this book. But start first with Pro, the first book Frank wrote in 1970 with Dick Schaap.