How I Became an Author & My Next Book—PGA Tour Bible Study

When people learn that I’m an author, they often ask, “Oh, you write about golf?”

I usually answer, “No, I’ve never been that interested in writing about golf. But I’m very interested in writing about Jesus.” By late 2023, I had eight published books about Jesus. (All are available on amazon.com.)

I’m also asked sometimes, “How did you become an author?”

I usually answer something like this, “I used to read a lot of books on theology, and I still do. I started thinking that some professors who write those books aren’t that good at it. They may be able to communicate well in the classroom, but not so much on the printed page. So, I decided I wanted to try to bridge that gap.” (But in subsequent years, authors of trade publications have had more help from editors.)

Now I’m going to reveal for the first time the story behind that story about how I became an author. One Sunday morning in about 1975, I was driving my car, with my family in it, out of our church parking lot. I turned to my wife and declared most solemnly for the first time, “Marilyn, I’m going to write a book.” She blurted out, “What! You can’t write!” I laughed and replied, “Yeah, I know. But I’m gonna learn from you.”

She had graduated from our college, the University of Houston, with honors with an advanced degree in English Literature. And she had worked her way through college part-time as a proofreader for the school’s administration. I believed she had the ability to write fairly well. She also had a better vocabulary than I did. I sometimes called her “my walking dictionary.” And she did become a proofreader and sort of an editor for my first three books, published in 1987 and 1990.

On my Kermit Zarley Blog that I’ve had since 2013, hosted by Patheos, I have sometimes gotten commenters who didn’t like what I wrote about Jesus, or they didn’t like my critiques of Donald Trump. A few of them would remark sarcastically, “You should stick to golf.”

Okay, I’m now going to meet those ornery souls halfway by joining golf and Jesus together. Yes, I’m writing a book about the PGA Tour Bible Study. Next year, in August, it will be the 60th anniversary of this group.

I co-founded the “Tour Bible Study” in 1965 and thereafter co-led it through 1982. (When the Tour changed its name to PGA Tour, in 1975, we then added “PGA” to the name of our group, thus “PGA Tour Bible Study.”) So, this book is only about that period: 1965-1982. I wrote part of it back in the late 1970s and 1980s.

I don’t have a publisher for this book yet, and I don’t want to self-publish it. With the right publisher, I think it has potential to be successful. If that happens, there is the possibility that books could be written about the next two eras of this fellowship group as I see them: 1983-2000 and 2001-2025. Scottie Scheffler being #1 worldwide, and a prominent member of the PGA Tour Bible Study, should be creating more interest in a book or books about this group and its members.