Getting Up & Down: My 60 Years in Golf

He shows there is a reason for everything, and all hardships have a silver lining at the end.

All things work together for the good for all who believe in God.

Thank you Ken Venturi for sharing your life with us.


something smells   April 12, 2004
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book is one lousy read - get over yourself Ken. I know it hurts to know that you won't be remembered for your golf.


Venturi Does Himself No Favors   April 5, 2004
 14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Wow. Ken Venturi should have never allowed this book to go to print. Did he not realize how he paints himself in his own autobiography as a bitter, selfish, whiny, excuse-making old coot? On virtually every page he shows himself to be as self-centered and clueless as they come.

He basically accuses Arnold Palmer of cheating. Not only Palmer, but Gary Player and a couple of lesser known golfers such as Al Besselink. But its not the "tattletale" nature of the book that most grates on the nerves - its the constant attempt to portray himself as a corageous underdog battling and overcoming the odds. And all the while making excuse after excuse for his own shortcomings both on and off the links.

Several times in the book he makes the comment that "no one ever laid down for me," particularly referencing Arnold Palmer's U.S. Open loss to Billy Casper when Palmer blew a 7-shot lead on the back nine. "Palmer never faltered like that when I was chasing him," he whines. In fact, he whines about Palmer incessantly. He obviously has no love or "like" for Arnie at all.

One of the most amazing (and distasteful) stories pertains to Venturi's friendship with Frank Sinatra. Venturi spends several pages painting the picture of how he and SInatra were inseperable friends, and reveals that he was moved nearly to tears when Sinatra once introduced him to a crowd as "my brother." Yet when Sinatra lay ill and dying, Venturi refused a request from Sinatra's wife to come and visit the great singer before he passed away. Venturi's lame excuse: "I couldn't bring myself to go. I wanted to remember him as the great man he was." Way to go, Ken, leave your own "brother" alone on his death bed. Boo hoo hoo, you selfish putz.

OK, OK, I won't say anymore in case you actually still want to read this book. But be prepared - you will probably come away, as I did, with an altered image of Ken Venturi. A negative image for sure.


THOSE WHO CAN'T--VENTURI SOUR GRAPES!   April 4, 2004
 4 out of 7 found this review helpful

This book, a bawdy, bragging, vulgar look at an insignificant golf career, is, in the end, essentially avoidable. Avoid it because it really does nothing for the game and, surprisingly and ultimately does nothing for its author.

But in the end Ken Venturi's new book, GETTING UP & DOWN: MY SIXTY YEARS IN GOLF, should be avoided like the Road Hole Bunker at St. Andrews for one major reason: Venturi's cowardly and inappropriate lashing out in the book against Arnold Palmer, claiming that Palmer cheated to win the 1958 Masters. Isn't it interesting that this is surfacing now, thirty-six years after the fact? Wouldn't an "honorable" golfer have registered his concerns immediately, regardless of consequences? Certainly! Makes you wonder just how honorable Venturi was and is, doesn't it? Well let's look at some of Venturi's own words. He claims that he decided not to go public earlier with his allegations because "if anything, going public would damage my fragile image even further." Interesting! Damage a fragile image even further? Mysterious! Not worried about damaging Palmer's public image. Worried about damaging his own "fragile" image.

Venturi also says that he waited to register his complaints because of his "responsibilities and loyalties to CBS. The network needed to maintain a good relationship with Augusta National." Fascinating! Wouldn't it be a little clearer to say that, given his lackluster professional career, managing only one major--the 1964 US Open--Venturi crawled into a hole of silence so as not to risk losing the only job he had?

Venturi claims further that Augusta National co-founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts told him years later that Palmer should not have received the favorable ruling. What? The perfect time to go public and to come clean and all with the sanction and backing of the patron saint of American golf, the great Bobby Jones. But no! Besides no one has been able to confirm Venturi's claims here because both Jones and Roberts have been dead now for more than 25 years. How convenient.

Now, if Arnold Palmer were truly guilty of an infraction that should have cost him his first major, wouldn't he try to suppress the story at every turn? Quite certainly! Instead Palmer has mentioned the ruling in two of his books, A GOLFERS LIFE and PLAYING BY THE RULES: ALL THE RULES OF THE GAME, COMPLETE WITH MEMORABLE RULINGS FROM GOLF'S RICH HISTORY (2002). In the latter, he forthrightly discusses his dispute with the on-course officials on hand at Augusta and the fact that he declared he would play two balls and appeal to the tournament committee. Perfectly appropriate under the rules of golf. In his book Palmer states, "I later heard that Ken Venturi was particularly upset, feeling like he had been cheated by my second-ball situation at the 12th. But I felt then and I feel now that I did what any other player could and should do: I followed the rules in both letter and spirit, and, as a result, I won my first major championship." It is also interesting to note that Palmer in PLAYING BY THE RULES... states that Bobby Jones was on hand when the tournament committee at Augusta that year granted his appeal, giving him a three at the contested hole. Quite interesting, isn't it, that Venturi, who, playing with Palmer, surely saw Palmer's fairway meeting with Jones, fails to mention this in his book.

Finally, Venturi claims that his timing for his book release is to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of his 1964 US Open Championship. Rubbish! Venturi still apparently has problems with the truth. Everyone knows that the Open is an annual Father's Day event. Why not wait until June and a fitting anniversary for his one major? Because it is more than likely that Venturi wants to attempt to blemish what is likely Arnold Palmer's final Masters. About as dirty as belching during your partner's take away!

There are plenty of great golf books out there so don't waste your time on this one. Either of the two books by Palmer, both available from Amazon, would be an appropriate substitute.