Ken Ellsworth, a former PGA Tour professional and one-time Division I All-American golfer, has released his debut memoir, How Can This Be? a candid, deeply personal account of a life built on athletic ambition and then rebuilt on faith. Published through Christian Faith Publishing, the book arrives after more than a decade of writing, reflection, and, in Ellsworth's words, listening. It is not a golf memoir in the traditional sense. It is the story of a man who reached the edges of his own strength, more than once, and had to decide what came next.
Ellsworth's golf career alone would make for a compelling read. He played basketball and golf at California State University, Los Angeles, earned All-American honors, and went on to compete on the PGA Tour, including a memorable final-round pairing with Lee Trevino at the Hawaiian Open and a career-defining win at the Bridgestone Classic in Japan in 1970. But the book turns on what came after the trophies: a divorce, a stroke that stripped him of nearly all his vocabulary, and a heart condition that would eventually require a transplant in 2012. Woven through the narrative is a poem, "Behold," that came to Ellsworth in a dream in 1996 and that he later credits with helping him relearn how to speak. Readers follow him from a Minnesota driveway, where he collapsed in the snow and let go of decades of self-reliance, to a hospital bed at the Mayo Clinic, where he waited for a heart that would let him keep his promise to God.
Ellsworth wrote the book, he says, as a gift for his family and for anyone quietly wrestling with questions of faith, identity, and what it means to be truly free. Structured around scripture, personal testimony, and his own study of the Bible, How Can This Be? is his attempt to separate the wisdom of the world from what he came to understand as the wisdom of God, grace received rather than earned. He doesn't ask readers to take his word for it so much as invite them to see and hear the same truth for themselves. "This story is a gift," he writes. "He who has eyes let him see, he who has ears let him hear."
About the Author: Ken Ellsworth was born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles. A standout basketball and golf player in his youth, he competed on the PGA Tour for seven years before turning to teaching, later serving as director of instruction for Natural Golf and appearing on the Golf Channel. He is a lifetime member of the PGA. After surviving a stroke, years of heart failure, and a heart transplant in 2012, Ellsworth has devoted his later years to sharing his story of faith with family, friends, and anyone seeking the truth of Jesus Christ. He lives in Menomonie. WI, and is the father of four daughters.