Golf Magazines

Jack Long . . . Facts, Fiction, Hope

Jack makes some interesting comments on the conflicts in Golf Magazines

I read golf magazines. I enjoy them, and I respect the quality of the work that goes into publishing each issue of each magazine.

And, I usually learn something of value from each magazine that I read, although this sometimes requires a real effort.

Having said these things, I have to confess that I am sometimes left feeling confused, mentally exhausted and anxious after spending an hour or so with some golf magazines. I have been thinking about this matter for a few months now.

Take the issue of clubs.

I like my clubs, but I want to keep abreast of technological developments. If a new putter or driver will improve my game, I want to own that club. It is not always possible to “test drive” new clubs, and even when you get to try them out, the conditions are not the same as the conditions on the course during a game.

Looking at articles about, or advertisements for a putter, does little to help me. So, I offer the following suggestion: a series of blank grids at the back of each magazine which allow the reader to match his/her specific requirements with the different clubs written about or advertised in the magazine.

In other words, if I were in the market for a new putter, I would like to have a blank grid at the back of the magazine, in which I could compare the various putters described in the magazine with my own list of specifications. If three putters were described in the magazine, I would like to be able to list them on the horizontal axis of a blank grid, list my specifications on the vertical axis of the grid, and put an “x” in the grid beneath each putter that appears to satisfy my specific requirements. For example, I would complete a blank grid for a new putter in the following way:

So, based on the information contained in the articles and/or advertisements about putters, I would be most interested in learning more about Putter B. Without having completed the grid, I would not be able to intelligently match the different putters with my specifications. You have your own putting “personality” and different putters have their own “personalities”, which may or may not satisfy your specifications.

Let’s look at the issue of “advice” to golfers.

This is a little bit scary. I recently spent some time charting the conflicts in advice about drives and fairway shots in one issue of one golf magazine. Without naming the magazine, and without going into the details about the extent of the conflicts in the advice given by the “professionals”, let me just say that I – a confirmed skeptic – was surprised.

So, my recommendation to the publishers is to give us - somewhere in the magazine - a summary of how the advice of one professional differs from the advice of other professionals relative to specific shots, rather than leaving us with the impression that one professional knows more than his/her colleagues.

You may recall that Caddyus never rejected advances in technology. See Article No. 1. However, Caddyus also instructed us that we needed to rely on our “Teachers”. So, before you buy new clubs, or before you attempt to change your swing, check in with a golf professional in whom you have confidence. And, a second professional opinion is an option which, I believe, has been overlooked in the world of golf.

The issue of “Personalities”. In a recent magazine, I found myself to be completely uninterested in an article about Darren Clarke. Quoting from the magazine:

Question: “Even drunk you were able to accessorize. You’ve always been really good at that.”

Response: “We flew home on Virgin Atlantic from the Ryder Cup and there was a bar on the plane. The flight was 10 hours and I think we spent nine of them at the bar. So just in case I didn’t have enough the previous evening, I decided to carry on all the way home. A few of my teammates propped me up when we were meeting with the press after we got off the plane.”

How in the world does this material square with our initiatives to get our youngsters interested in the great sport? Of course, this is a matter of personal taste, but I sometimes wonder why the publishers of golf magazines believe that ordinary, responsible golfers and our youngsters are interested in people like Darren Clarke.

Good luck, remember your innate athletic ability and your inner game, and Godspeed. Jack Long is a golf-theorist and founder of The Paranormal Golf Institute. He is working on a series of articles based in part upon:

• Cold War research documents in the field of paranormally controlled trajectories (PCT), documents recently discovered in the archives of the PCT Institute in Niblickvostock in the former Soviet Union; and • His own, and other recent translations of the Golfnostic Gospels unearthed last year in caves near the northern Egyptian city of El Sandtrapya.

No part of this article may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from Jack Long, PGI, 192 College Street, Burlington, VT 05401. Jack Long’s Articles appear on the website www.just-for-golf.com. and www.the golfcafe.com