The "New" Golf Digest

[canadianpro]

I am not too sure about that as I am on their " advisory " board and the latest survey had to do with the new format, articles and how much attention I pay to what watch the pros are wearing

[NJpatbee]

I am not sure why, but I did not see the Lance Armstrong article from Nov. 14.   I did just go through the Johnny Golf cover issue and there were some decent golf articles and tips along with a ton of advertising and plenty of repetitive advice.  I take Golf and GD for what they are, inexpensive light browsing material with some reading mostly about golf.  Most of them stay in the bathroom magazine rack for a couple of months and then get recycled - none of them, at least recently, are worth saving.  With today's electronic media it is difficult for any print media to stay competitive, especially for an instructional sport like golf.

However, I do not get upset if the magazines have crummy (subjective to me)  issues or have Jimmy Kimmel on the cover.  They are trying to sell magazines and if their marketing approach flops then they suffer -  I do not view it as an integral part of my golf experience.   In fact, the only reason I was upset about Paulina Gretzky on the cover and the subsequent photos was that I though that it was Wayne's wife, not his daughter - shows my age.

Don't buy or read them if you do not like their offerings as there are plenty of other options.

[canadianpro]

The November issue had the column about how to fake the hole in one...The December issue has the Lance Armstrong interview

[RFKFREAK]

Google golf digest November 2014..it is listed under columns...by Guy Yocum

It appears that you can't access it from their site.

[scorpion12]

I just read the first couple of lines from the Lance Armstrong article. I just shook my head when he referenced the "honor" of golf... honor. Pfft. (While Lance never admitted any wrongdoing, he decided not to fight the allegations... from what my understanding is.)

I won't be going back to their web site. None of their slideshows are working for me. I don't know whether it's on my end or theirs and don't really care. There are other golf centric sites out there. Like TST

[trickyputt]

Flame on, but I am still a Lance fan for some reason.

[canadianpro]

Sure, people forgave Clinton for lying too...it is the new norm. Maybe they will feature Mike Tyson next issue.

[turtleback]

The November issue had the column about how to fake the hole in one...The December issue has the Lance Armstrong interview

And January has resolutions to stop reading GD.  Sadly it is the TMZ-ization of almost everything.

[TJBam]

The article had these guys working as a team (2 groups back to back) to pull off a sting to fool the officials.  They won a car but there was a conflict among team members on how to split the winning.   One guy blew the whistle b/c he wasn't getting his fair share.    Apparently, there are other stories like this one where people conspired to cheat the officials (or officials were in it, too) to win a big prize (new car, $10000, etc).   The organizers sometimes hire an insurance company to insure the prize, and the insurance company sends out their "watcher" to make sure there is no cheating.   Where there is money, there is cheating ...

I'd say 99% of all tournaments that offer these prizes have "hole in one" insurance.  Whether offering a new car, $10,000 cash, or whatever else.

Works like any old insurance.  You pay the company $1,500 or so flat fee to come out and make the offer, and if they lose they pay out the $20,000 prize.  If no one gets a hole in one (99% of the time), they've gained $1,500 for nothing but a "dare."  Pretty sweet business to be in, if you ask me.

[canadianpro]

Yes, it is common knowledge that almost all are covered by insurance. are you saying it is ok to cheat the insurance companies?

[DrvFrShow]

Cheating insurance companies? It's not black and white, and that's the problem. The insurance companies are a bunch of crooks as well. Unfortunately we don't have much recourse with those who write the rules. The insurance companies aren't out for us. They're out for share holders. I could go into a real world example, but I would get an off topic warning.

[canadianpro]

The point of the whole thread was about topics that Golf Digest is covering and in my opinion, they shouldn't be featuring one on how to cheat.

[rkim291968]

It was an ironic choice for Lance Armstrong to write the "cheating" article.  Without knowing who wrote the article, I enjoyed it.   If I knew who wrote it, I may have not read the article.   That's me.  I think most others will not likely care.

[DrvFrShow]

That I agree with. However, that train left the station a long time ago. This was a pretty creative scam, I'll give them that. I had no idea people tried this. But now I do. I'd never do it, but guess what. If my club was running a hole in one competition, I'd hand the organizers this article. There's another way of spinning this. It blew the whistle on that scam.

The Lance Armstrong article? We have interesting priorities in this nation. Mark McGwire's and Barry Bond's HR numbers still stand in the record books. It's known they used PEDs. Yet Roger Maris had the asterisk -  how many packs of Lucky Strikes did he smoke a day when he hit 61 homers?

One thing we like to do in this country is build up the top athletes into larger than life sports heroes. It sells products, nothing more. But it also creates role models for youth, as misplaced as that may be. There are good role models and there are not so good role models among them. But the industry will hype a player no matter what as long as they're on top. They'll hide the dirty laundry of the player. The player becomes a lesser god. But they can't hide the dirty laundry forever because players are human and not gods, and the dirty laundry comes out. Then the press loves to tear them down, just like they built them up in the first place because tearing them down sells products. Look at what happened with Tiger Woods. It's not going to change.

[trickyputt]

I hope they dont run an article on using a pencil to clean the grooves on your irons. I wouldnt want anybody thinking I was using graphite as a lubricant to prevent sidespin. Really, I just dont have the right groove tool thing. Honest.

[DrvFrShow]

I hope they dont run an article on using a pencil to clean the grooves on your irons. I wouldnt want anybody thinking I was using graphite as a lubricant to prevent sidespin. Really, I just dont have the right groove tool thing. Honest.

I could probably still hit a slice.

[TJBam]

Yes, it is common knowledge that almost all are covered by insurance. are you saying it is ok to cheat the insurance companies?

Huh?  No, just saw that @rkim291968 said "sometimes" an insurance company is hired to cover the prize.  I'm just noting that nearly 100% of the time an insurance company is used, not "sometimes."

What are you, a ****ing claims adjuster?  Get off my back.

[DocWu1948]

Back to original topic, yeah, what's up with Golf Digest. The printed magazine seems about half its original size. Last page of current issue is an article on how to avoid paying your golf gambling debts. Tongue in cheek yes, but still strange.

My local muni held a very casual hole-in-one contest several years ago to benefit Wounded Warriors. It cost a few bucks. They had two cameras watching the tee boxes and the green. You won something like a free cart rental if you got the ball within tap-in distance and maybe five hundred bucks for the ace. For either, you called the Pro shop immediately so they could record the time and review the video. Over the several weeks of the promotion, they did have several aces, so I wonder if the charity got any money. I always entered, overswung, and never hit the green 140 yeards away. So sad.