AUTHOR
Who is I. B. Nobody?
A first-time author, who in an attempt to improve the book, has three iterations of his efforts. Reality shows that nobody picks up a paintbrush and expects to create a masterpiece the first time. The changes were identified by the quotes of Babe Ruth in the first part of the book.
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Iteration #1 - starts with "Played 365 rounds of golf last year. . .
Iteration #2 - starts with "If Henry Ford hadn't kept going. . .
Iteration #3 - and the finished product starts with "The kids I left behind. . .
There are few things in life that I find more gratifying than learning and teaching about golf. We are all born with an insatiable curiosity about the world around us and more so if you're a golfer. In my pursuit of assembling this book and learning about this great game (the endless tunnel of discovery?) would be marginal without the knowledge I learned from reading his books and conversing with Al Barkow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Barkow
As you will see, he's a gem.
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I. B. Nobody, a Northern California native, was taught to play golf by Lucious Bateman—an African American golf instructor who mentored seven players who played the tour between the 1950s and the 1970s.
After Bateman’s death in April of 1972, I.B. Nobody was drafted into the US Army in August of 1972. After his Honorable Discharge in August of 1974—as a Vietnam Veteran—the author went about sourcing the best players in the Northern California region for instruction. Meticulous notes from those lessons, plus real-life experiences from his caddy days, along with the quotes from the master of the games books—Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer—and an assortment of legendary instructors - whose thoughts, concepts, and ideas - are interwoven in a concise, somewhat simple process to understanding the game of golf.
What's my cred? I have had flashes of brilliance:
* In 1971 I qualified for the USGA the U.S. Amateur Public Links.
* In 1975 I qualified for the USGA Amateur. At that time there
were only 200 players who qualified for the championship.
* In 1976, I qualified sectionally for the USGA Open.
Keep in mind, we were playing with persimmon woods and balata balls.
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From the Inside Out, you’ll have the opportunity to step back in time and learn what the masters of the game thought or, more importantly. . . what they felt.
If you’re a fan of golf history, you’ll find the information between these pages fascinating. There’s not another book in publication with this type of information between its pages.
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As published in USA Today Oct 21, 2025