By John Strege
Ewan Porter is an Australian golf professional, whose career pereptually foundered, notwithstanding two Web.com victories in three years. So he turned to media and already has found success easier to come by with the written word.
Last month, Porter's e-book, "Tour Confidential: Triumph & Torment -- A golfer's life on the global stage," was introduced and was the number one seller among golf books on Amazon.com's Kindle list. It also reached No. 1 among sports books on iTunes. He no doubt received an assist from the Twitter plug provided by Graeme McDowell, who wrote, "Interesting book written by one of the Aussie tour players @ewanports. Bit of an inside the ropes view of the tour."
"I have written a book that will open up people's eyes to the enjoyment, sacrifices, heartache, torture and isolation one endures in attempting to chase the dream of being a professional athlete," Porter wrote in a description of the book.
Golf Channel's Jerry Foltz in a blurb for the book wrote, "His God-given talent is world class...the flare with which he carried himself is second to none...his ability to self destruct is the stuff of legend." Trumping all that, Foltz wrote, is "his ability to openly and honestly share the emotional roller-coaster that life as an aspiring, nomadic, professional golfer dictates. That's a very rare gift."
Porter, 30, won the Web.com Tour's Moonah Classic in 2008 and the South Georgia Classic in 2010. But he made the cut in only 23 of 97 Web.com Tour starts and missed the cut in the three British Opens for which he qualified. He has said he would explore media opportunites, while still playing professional golf when opportunities present themselves.
