The winners of the Annual Golf Writers Association of America writing contest are littered with many of the great names in sports journalism.
Jenkins, Kindred, Sirak, Achenbach, Callahan, Diaz, Kessler, Reilly, Rosaforte, Boswell, Tayor, are some of the masters of composition whose monikers grace the walls in the pantheon of outstanding golf literature.
But none of those illustrious scribes can match the towering accomplishments of former Golf Magazine and Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck who holds the record in the annual competition with twelve first-place awards.
Only the late Hall of Famer, Dan Jenkins comes close with ten first place trophy’s
Shipnuck shared his most recent award with Michael Bamberger for the fictional account of “The Masters That Never Was.” A fanciful account of last year’s Masters if it had been conducted without the restrictions the COVID-19 pandemic placed on the 2020 Tournament. You may access the winning entry here. The Masters That Never Was, Part I: Tiger arrives, and Team Reed grows (golf.com)
A graduate of UCLA and a twenty-five-year veteran of the publishing wars with Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine, and Golf.com, Shipnuck is the author of six books, including the national bestsellers, “Bud. Sweat, & Tees” and “The Swinger” (also with Michael Bamberger).
He is currently at work on an unauthorized biography with Phil Mickelson.
I was invited to join in on a rambling and unscripted conversation held by the Shivas Irons Society, conducted by Executive Director Ben Kline, as Shipnuck made the surprising announcement he was severing ties with Golf Magazine and the high-priced New York fifth-avenue rat race, casting his fate to the fickle winds of independent journalism.
Feeling stifled by the restrive boardroom hierarchy of Madison Avenue publishing, Shipnuck is joining forces with former Golf Channel’s Matt Ginella and Alex Upegui in launching a new venture, “The FirePit Collective.”
Together, they are combining their individual and distinctive talents into an enterprising new media company that will produce a website/podcast/platform offering their unique brand of storytelling and golf travel literature that has produced so much award-winning prose along the way.
You may access their new website at. https://thefirepitcollective.com/
And please listen to the entire conversation with Alan here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
