Issue No. 141 | Jan. 10, 2025
I first met Sean Martin — who is in charge of almost all of the written content at the PGA Tour (or as he puts it in his texts, the PGA TOUR) — at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
The way I remember it is that we were introduced and just immediately jumped into conversation about his upcoming wedding and the think tank his fiancee was working for at that time and then we started hollering about Spieth and the Chambers conditions, and we haven’t really stopped talking about golf (and anything and everything else) since that week.
Sean is one of my closest friends in the golf world and probably the person I spend the most time with when we’re all on the road. Even though we live in different states, we have experienced a lot of life together at places like Augusta, Carmel and Rome.
He’s somebody I admire quite a bit, both for the way he lives life and the way he thinks about golf. We don’t always agree, but there is a brother-like quality there that we always return to. I’m grateful for him as a friend and that he was willing to indulge my questions this week.
Hope you guys enjoy.
Thank you to Meridian Putters for partnering with us to bring you today’s newsletter.
I mentioned on Thursday that one of my personal golf goals in 2025 is to break 80 twice. The best way for me to do that? I need to clean up my short game, which is abysmal. Putting into a cup over and over while it’s freezing out is a good start. Basically what Jason nicely illustrated above, which was perhaps a dig at me, tbh.
My weapon of choice when our 1.5 inches of snow thaws will almost certainly be this Key West number from Meridian or perhaps one of their new models coming out at the end of the month. 👀
Either way, I’m excited to get one of those in the bag to try and hit my 2025 goals. If you haven’t entered your goals, by the way, you can do so at this page we set up for you right here. Also, check out Meridian right here.
KP: As much time as we’ve spent together, I’m not totally sure I know the story about how you got into golf media. How did that happen?
SM: I grew up around words. My dad worked in the book publishing industry, so we basically could get any book we wanted (it also somehow got us an account to Tower Records, so I could get any CD I wanted. I was awash in late ‘90s grunge).
My dad changed jobs when I was 11, from Random House to Disney, so we moved out to Southern California. That’s when I was introduced to golf, first reading Golfweek magazine in the pro shop at Westlake Golf Course. I basically knew I wanted to become a sportswriter and golf had become my biggest passion, so golf writing was the perfect marriage of the two.
I was a journalism major at Cal Poly, and briefly on the golf team. I emailed Golfweek constantly, asking about freelance opportunities and internships. A few months after I graduated from college, Beth Ann Nichols reached out saying they had an opening. I later learned that they used to make fun of me in the office for the number of emails I sent, but that persistence also was the reason they hired me. I started Jan. 2, 2006, so I’m coming up on two decades doing this. That’s crazy to think about.
KP: You are known, amusingly, for your Western Am knowledge and deep well of intrigue when it comes to the accolades of players at the highest level but at every level from junior am play to the Masters. Where did that desire for knowledge or interest come from? Was there something from when you were a kid that made you want every piece of minutia?
SM: I think a lot of it has to do with Golfweek. When I was in high school, Golfweek was the go-to source for golf scores. The Internet was still in its rather nascent days of the late 1990s. So I would go to the agate page to see what other junior golfers and college golfers were shooting. It was a way for me to size up the competition. I was probably too focused on what others were shooting and not concerned enough with what I was shooting. And then my first job at Golfweek was helping to compile those agate pages, so I still remember, for example, Patrick Rodgers and Paige Spiranac dominating the Future Collegians World Tour, and the time the Dogwood Invitational used Webb Simpson’s first name, James, and we were trying to figure out who this James Simpson was that just won this top amateur event.
I think, also, that I view things in a very linear fashion. So I assume too often that the best junior player will become the best college player and then a top pro player. But one of my favorite Scottie Scheffler quotes is when he relayed what his swing coach, Randy Smith said: “I don’t care if you’re the best 15-year-old in the world. I want you to be the best 25-year-old.”
I think that’s a perspective I often lack as someone who can become too focused in the moment. That’s why I find it hard to wrap my head around the reason the No. 3 guy on his college team becomes a Tour winner when the two guys who were ahead of him in the lineup never get off the Korn Ferry Tour. I think that influences my answer to this next question.
KP: Golf has changed a lot since you got into covering it. Covering golf has changed a lot. What about covering the game still brings you joy?
SM: I think just talking golf. I love talking golf and thinking about golf. I love hearing about what guys are working on, talking golf swing with coaches and about things like course management and strategy. I think I’m really into the performance side of the game because that’s the one thing that has stayed constant. No matter what the technology looks like, or the courses, or the purse size, the objective remains the same.
Every golfer ever is concerned first and foremost with shooting a lower score. It’s the tie that binds you and I to Tiger Woods. And I find it endlessly fascinating when players who’ve seemingly mastered the game are continuing to tinker and experiment in order to shoot just a little lower. I think a lot of times golf media bends over backwards to try and make golfers seem funny or cool, hip or relevant. But, in my mind, the most interesting thing about them is that they’re really, really good at golf and we are watching them less for their personality and more for their ability to play really good golf. I’m not going to watch an NHL game because I saw the guy do a Tik Tok bit. But I’m going to watch if history is on the line.
I know not everyone feels the same, but that’s how I’ve always felt. I want to see people performing at the peak of their game and learn more about how they’re doing it.
KP: You are such a good bridge for me from how things used to transpire to how they transpire now. What did the old guard do better than the new guard of independent golf media?
SM: I think the art of asking questions is underrated. I’m not necessarily saying that the old guard is comprised of better question askers than the youths, but I think the art of the good question doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
Every interview, and its accompanying transcript, is available online, whether you attended an interview or not. And the best soundbites will be replayed on social media or Golf Channel. I think that creates the illusion that soundbites just appear out of nowhere and it’s simply our job to package it in the most appealing way possible on X and Instagram.
But often those great soundbites come from great questions. But we only focus on the bite and not the question that leads to it. And so, fewer writers are given budget to travel to multiple events because they can, in theory, do their job from home. But when you have fewer people who really know the game and its players asking questions, you get fewer of those great soundbites.
KP: This question is because I haven’t asked you personally, and so I might as well share the answer publicly: From a creative/content side, what would you do with Normal Sport?
SM: That’s a great question. I think one of the hardest things in media, especially personality-driven media, is staying authentic and continuing to experiment. It becomes harder to do content you WANT to do and instead live up to what you think are your audience’s expectations.
It’s easy to just become the guy who’s known for one thing, i.e. the “Normal Sport Guy.” We get rewarded with engagement for our one thing, and it becomes easy to just keep going back to the well. It can become our personality and our identity.
So I think it’s about being willing to create content that may get less engagement but that you believe in, hoping that it will grow and become part of your quiver of content. I think you do a good job of this. You look into stats, you write about the emotional side of the game and then you look for ‘normal sport’ opportunities. I think it's just about continuing to make content that you believe in, not just stuff you think people come to you for. And continuing to make that content even if the engagement is lower than another “normal sport” post.
KP: You have a beret and one of those fancy boy clapping boards with the black and white stripes on it now. You were lead producer of this Scottie doc that came out on the PGA Tour’s YouTube channel and Golf Channel. What are you most proud of as it relates to making the documentary?
SM: Honestly? That we finished it. And that there were enough of us passionate enough about the project to make it happen on such a short timeline. I would say 90 percent of our original interviews were done in the month of December.
We interviewed Ted Scott and a bunch of players at the Hero World Challenge, and our final interviews with Scottie, his swing coach (Randy Smith) and mentor (Brad Payne) all took place on Dec. 10.
The full documentary was released on YouTube on Dec. 23, so the entire month of December was a period of sustained intensity unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. And so a lot of credit needs to go to our director, Skyler Morton, and editor, Mark Linabury. Especially because they were dealing with someone (me) who was completely new to the process. I could contribute from the storytelling angle, but you start talking about things like frame rates and sound mastering and I’m totally lost.
But from a finished product standpoint, I’m proudest that we could provide new insights into one of golf’s greatest seasons. It’s something as a golf obsessive that I want more of. Just those tiny tidbits and anecdotes that add layers to what we see on TV. And I think we got enough of those to make the 68-minute documentary worth watching even if you saw each of Scottie’s wins live. Scottie deserves a lot of credit for that. He was pretty open in our interview and allowed his team to be, as well. When someone asked him what they could and could not talk about in their interview, Scottie simply said, “I trust you.” What No. 1 player in the world is allowing his team that sort of leeway?
The little tidbits like Sam Burns talking about how he and Scottie would stay up at night putting in their rental homes while Scottie was struggling on the greens, the grip change Scottie made mid-week at the Masters, the joke Brad Payne made after Scottie returned home from the second round of the PGA and the time Scottie blew off Ted Scott’s proposed target at the Olympics are the sort of anecdotes that I hope people will remember when they finish watching. I think my absolute favorite scene is Scottie’s shank at the Tour Championship. The music, the quotes, the insight (Scottie admits that in his head he’s thinking, “Oh my gosh, what is happening right now?”), the anxiety followed by the incredible shot, it was such a cool clip in my opinion. And Randy Smith is like listening to Johnny Cash talk golf. He’s a great narrator.
KP: I have argued with so many people about this, but I find Scottie to be so interesting in terms of his golf. I know you feel similarly, but what is it about him that intrigues you?
SM: I think a lot of times we talk about his mindset like he has it all figured out. And his mind IS an advantage. But it doesn’t mean he’s exempt from struggles. And I think the documentary shows that.
First, it comes through in the putting. We show him chucking his ball into the trees and showing frustration early in the year. Brad talks about how he went to Scottie’s house and Scottie finally admitted that he wasn’t doing well, that the putting was getting to him after so many months of trying to downplay it.
Then, at the Olympics, Scottie wanted to snap his putter over his knee at the turn on Sunday. And THEN HE GOES OUT AND SHOOTS 29!! And, finally, Scottie admits his level of anxiety entering the Tour Championship.
The guy had already won six times that year but he told Brad, “I feel like I need to win this to prove myself.” He had failed with the lead at East Lake the previous two years. So I think it’s that balance of having a strong mind but still struggling. It’s something we all can relate to.
And I think one of the biggest things is that Scottie is surrounded by encouragers. His parents, Meredith, Ted. When things are falling apart at East Lake, Ted Scott simply says, “Who’s the best golfer in the world?” When they were debating whether they should go for Augusta’s 13th in two, Ted says, “Who’s the best ballstriker in the world?” It shows the power of encouragement, especially when things aren’t going well.
KP: At some point, I want to do a semi-regular pod with you — maybe like 5-10 a year — looking back at the lost boys. The Pablo Martins and Phillip Francis’. What happened? What are they doing now? Who would you want to do for Episode 1 of that pod?
SM: My white whale has always been Mac O’Grady. A full sit-down with him. I wanted to watch him play a Monday qualifier but never had the chance.
KP: Be honest, would you trade Ohtani for Soto straight up right now?
SM: Can Soto pitch?
Thank you for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.
And thank you to Sean for his work on the Scottie doc.
Go watch it if you haven’t yet.
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