Q&A With CPG, Author Of Club Pro Guy’s Other Black Book — Geoff Shackelford

Club Pro Guy recently surprised the golf world with the publication announcement for his new book, Club Pro Guy’s Other Black Book.

Authored with Paul Koehorst, CPG’s already placing it in the pantheon of American golf literature with Scotland’s Gift-Golf and Hogan’s Five Fundamentals.

A Mexican Mini-Tour “legend” who is believed to have made 17 cuts, CPG is a former Lynx Ambassador and founder of the 7-4-7 Swing Thought System®. Despite an ugly losing streak in the Thursday Afternoon Men’s League and what appear to be labor shortage issues while building Three Jack National, CPG carved out a few minutes from his busy schedule to answer my questions. (Full disclosure: I bought a Yucatan National membership and am sorry to report they are not currently available.)

GS: The book cover looks suspiciously like Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book. Do you share any similarities with Mr. Penick in your life or teaching philosophies?

CPG: Mr. Penick was faithfully married to the same woman for 74 years and abstained from alcohol. I’ve been thrice divorced and can’t start my Miata without blowing into a court mandated breathalyzer, so our life philosophies couldn’t be more divergent. From a teaching perspective, I feel like Harvey was very one dimensional. Was he a great teacher? Yes. But he never played the game at an elite level and I think that limited his ability to get the most out of his students. It’s also probably the reason Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw only won 3 majors between them. As for me, I’m a classic dual-threat. Meaning I can teach the game at a high level as well as play the game at a high level. Which is extremely rare. Not only can I give players the knowledge to be great, but I can also tell them what to expect when they become great.

GS: What are some of the “Other Black Book” topics we can expect and are there any chapters that you’re particularly proud of?

CPG: The topics are all over the board and I think that’s what makes this book so unique and so valuable. In one chapter you might learn how to develop a rock solid pre-shot routine, and in the next you’re getting valuable tips on how to avoid shitting your pants on the course. Instruction, travel, dating, technology, you name it. It’s all in there. The chapter I’m most proud of is probably the one where I list my complete cache of private swing thoughts.

GS: What topics ended up getting cut?

CPG: I had a 68-page chapter devoted exclusively to the Medicus Golf Club that my editor convinced me to scrub. It started out as an instructional piece, then it meandered into a product review of sorts and by the time the chapter ended, I had somehow delved deep into Mark O’Meara’s personal life. It got pretty dark.

There was also a “travel and destinations” chapter that focused on the Sioux City, IA that didn’t make the book, as well as a chapter detailing the 79 I fired in the 2nd round of the 1993 Yucatan Masters where I attempted to walk the reader through my round, shot by shot.