Finding/pursuing a golf writing job?

Yeah. Nothing defines paid vacation quite as well as sitting in the press room for 8-10 hours a day in Binghamton or the Quad Cities and then hitting all the hot spots when you're done working.

 

If you're not at a major metro, living in a golf-heavy town helps.

 

Puhhhhhhhhlease.

You are not going to sell me that hefty bag of bullshit.

 

Have you ever covered a golf tournament?

 

Sure, it's easy work ... if you stay in the media center and only write about the people they bring in the interview room. If you actually cover a golf tournament, you know, walk the course, look for interesting news and notes aside from who is at the top of that's day's leaderboard, it can be considerably more difficult. Certainly not "a working vacation."

 

So you walk the course for eight or 10 hours a day? Like it or not, you spend a large portion of your day in the tent, especially when the TV coverage starts. And they only bring in a couple guys so you have to chase guys too.

 

No, that's not what I'm saying. Of course you spend a good deal of time in the press tent. But if you ONLY spend time in the tent, you're not covering the tournament the right way. Simon seems to think covering golf means just sitting in the tent and waiting for every interview to be spoon fed to you.

 

At the local PGA Tour stop, I was surprised to find out that writers from 90% of the area newspapers decided that hanging out in the press tent and getting their information "spoon fed," as you correctly said, was enough for them. I can't tell you how much they missed out on the course.

But hey, to each his own.

 

To be fair, if it's a close tournament and a lot going on in various places on the course, it's not like other sporting events -- the action isn't all in front of you in one place.

On the other hand, following the last group on Sunday, at least until everybody in it goes far south, is kind of a no-brainer.

 

In my case, I coordinate our coverage so I tend to stick close to the tent and dole out the assignments while texting the photogs on the course to tell them what we need and where to go. Also, the powers that be want constant Internet updates so I do a lot of that. Can't do that from the course.

 

We tend to cover the local PGA stop with two writers - one on the course with Tiger at all times and one staying in the tent to handle ongoing updates on Tiger.

(When Tiger doesn't play in the tournament, we usually only have to devote one person to him.)