Merrill Golf Club pro Mike Potter has just published the book, Forward and Up. It is a paperback golf self-help book with many insights that even the non-golfer will appreciate.
Over the year and a half that it took Potter to assemble the book, he drew on the lessons he’d learned over 40 years on the golf course – going back as far as the sage advice he learned as a young caddy.
The book is 20 chapters and 122 pages in length and addresses many contemporary issues that we all face including balance, emotions and goal setting. While there is a chapter on body mechanics, Potter recognizes that the game of golf is as much in the player’s head as it is in the hands or hips.
“I’d been reading a lot of books on swinging a golf club, but there’s more to golf and more to life,” Potter said.
Potter uses a wheel analogy to explain how all the spokes need to be straight and true for the wheel to roll perfectly.
“Golf is a game of misses and this is how to deal with those misses,” Potter said.
Potter played collegiate golf at the University of Colorado. He’s been teaching the game as a golf pro for 17 years, the past 12 years in Merrill.
Forward and Up is a culmination of all the experiences he’s had over the years playing and teaching golf.
Merrill teen Dominic Laufenberg – who was a spelling bee champ in middle school – helped Potter edit the book.
The publisher is Starry Night Publishing Co. out of Rochester, NY, and the book is available for $10 at Merrill Golf Club or is also available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
While he’s proud of his work as an author, Potter continues his day job teaching the game of golf in Merrill. He is offering a free ladies clinic every Thursday in May, starting May 11, from 6-7 p.m. at Clear Cut Driving Range just south of Merrill.