Reading material

I love a magazine. From regular purchases of Match and then 90 minutes through my football obsessed teenage years, on to a variety of console magazines during my twenties. It is unsurprising that as I have now reached the dawn of middle age (the good news is life apparently starts now) that I subscribe to golfing publications. Two in fact but the road to choosing them has been a bizarre one and underlines the importance of engaging with your readers. The first magazine I purchased was Golf Monthly and it culminated in a letter of complaint. The front cover claimed a range of tips lurked inside those pages that would revolutionise my short game. What I found was a single pager from Gary Alliss that told me stuff I already knew/figured out on my own and I was a newbie. Not impressed. To be fair to GM they replied to my terse communication promising a copy of their short game handout from an earlier issue. Plus one for replying, minus two for not sending.

So I bought Today's Golfer at that time it had a younger, fresher more modern feel. It was light reading and I liked it. I visited the website, which also 'spoke to me'. After a few months they gave the magazine a face lift. I approved a lot and wrote to the editor to tell him so. He didn't reply but then again he is a busy chap why send a response to mr random? However, during this time I ventured on to the respective forums of each magazine. Golf Monthly's was brimming with eager keen golfers sharing advice, tips, jokes by contrast the Today's Golfer site was lifeless, soulless. Then came the dual masterstroke a forum exclusive offer to play for GM against Team Ping and a half price magazine subscription offer that the editor gave us prior notice so we waited to take advantage. They changed the look of the magazine making it much more modern.

That said I still subscribe to both, primarily because TG keep offering ridiculously good subscription offers with free Z-Stars. But that maybe about to change. Golf World have got in on the act cold calling me with an offer of three issues for a pound. I took them up on it and have been extremely impressed with what I have read so far. So I will at point of renewal need to lose one of my subscriptions. Interactions with the GM staff, the wonderful forum, the unbelievable opportunities and the calibre of the magazine mean I'm a loyal reader. So it seems that the days of TG luring me in with ball offers are over and Golf's answer to Grazia is on it's way off my reading list.