Talking Golf With The Golf Guy-Season 6 Episode 4 With Alan Shipnuck
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Talking Golf With The Golf Guy-Season 6 Episode 4 With Alan Shipnuck

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.

With over a half-century of engagement in the sport of Golf, Jeff Waters has become one of the most accomplished, experienced, and qualified Golf Professionals in the history of the PGA of America. He is a fully certified and trained Master Professional joining an exceedingly small and elite group of Professionals in the World to have achieved this prestigious title. Jeff holds University Degrees in Political Science, Teaching Minors in Economics and Finance, attended graduate school in Commercial Recreation, taught undergraduate classes at the University of Utah, and earned a master’s in business administration. With more than fifty years of experience and success in the business of Golf, Jeff spent ten years playing and competing in the game at all levels ten years laboring as an Assistant Golf Professional, acquiring the job-related skills, responsibilities, and training required for a career in golf, ten years fulfillment as a PGA Head Professional overseeing all aspects of the total golf course operation, three years’ service as Director of Player Development for Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation, administering and managing multiple golf course programs and activities, thirty-three years as a Golf Coach and Instructor at The Rocky Mountain Golf Academy, The University of Utah’s College of Health and the Granite Peaks Community College, teaching and tutoring the game. Additionally, Jeff has spent the last twenty-seven years as the Owner, President, and CEO of Rocky Mountain Golf Enterprises (RMG), a Utah-registered and licensed business offering golf-related services throughout the Western United States utilizing golf as the marketing tool. Finally, Jeff has performed on the national media stage for the past thirty-eight years as an Announcer, Author, Producer, and Talk Radio Host, communicating and sharing the joy, art, and skill that is the Game, Sport, and Challenge of Golf. Jeff, a well-known golf journalist, has been active in print media from an early age. His articles, commentary, and features regularly appear nationwide. He has authored two golf instruction books: “The Ten Commandments of Golf, Proven Principles That Make Your Golf Game Better,” and “The Short Game, the Transition from the Golf Course to the Putting Green.” Both are available as e-book downloads and on Amazon. Jeff penned his first short story while still in his teens and has since published 100’s of commentaries, essays, and instruction pieces in magazines, blogs, internet forums, and other platforms, including Golf Today, Utah Golf Magazine, Utah Golf News, Rocky Mountain Golfer, Fairways Magazine, Jackson Hole Golf News, Talking Golf with the Golf Guy, Voices in the Community.com, and Jeffgolfguy.com. He is the author of multiple books, stories, articles, posts, and evaluations of other writers’ publications. Jeff began his public communications career in High School and has had a constant presence in sports commentary throughout the years, providing play-by-play and color analysis at many diverse levels, including announcing football, baseball, and basketball games, along with local and national golf tournaments, while performing on other media platforms as well. Jeff was an early pioneer in Sports Radio, hosting a weekly talk show, “Talking Golf with the Golf Guy,” broadcasted and aired on various radio stations throughout the regional market, syndicated nationally on The Rocky Mountain Golf Network, and offered on most of the recognized podcast directories and streaming services. Over his extensive announcing career, Jeff has provided the vocal narration for hundreds of voice-overs, commercials, radio programming, sports interviews, tournament updates, blogs, podcasts, audiobooks, and videos, including the original voice work on the best-selling X-Box Links golf game. Jeff also contributed voice and commentary on the Centennial production, “One Hundred Years of the Utah State Amateur,” which is available on iTunes and Apple Music. As a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Jeff has attended and reported on-site more than a hundred golf tournaments, including an assortment of Major Golf Championships, including The United States Open Championship, The Masters, the PGA Championship, and The Ryder Cup, along with other competitions on the PGA Tours annual tournament schedule. Jeff has produced, directed, and distributed numerous film and video projects as stand-alone presentations while incorporating them within his blog, website, syndicated podcasts, and national radio programming. All are available for review on YouTube. Known as “The Voice of Golf” and “The Golf Guy” throughout the Western United States, Jeff is regularly sought for advice and counsel and often speaks to groups on golf-related subjects. You may contact Jeff by email at jeffgolfguy@att.net and on his website at www.jeffgolfguy.com.