Issue No. 124 | October 19, 2024

This week’s Q&A is with Sean Zak, who is a friend and somebody whose thoughtfulness and ideation I admire. Example: Sean recently wrote about how the PGA Tour, instead of joining forces with the YouTube golf world, should just … copy it.

Sean is someone I thoroughly enjoy watching tournaments/hanging out with on the road because he doesn’t take himself too seriously but he does aspire to doing terrific work. His first book — Searching in St. Andrews — is perfectly emblematic of that. He spent the summer of 2022 living in the town of St. Andrews, waiting for the golf world to descend on the 150th Open, watching it all blow up from afar.

He’s somebody I always enjoy talking golf with, and this Q&A was no different.

Hope you enjoy the interview!

But first!

A thank you to this week’s sponsor … the Ryder Cup!

If you enter your info right here, you are eligible to be selected for the opportunity to purchase what will be one of the more insane golf tickets of the last few years.

Because demand outpaces supply, the Ryder Cup randomly selects folks who are then eligible to purchase the tickets. Registration is open until 11:59 ET on Oct. 22 and those selected will be notified on Nov. 4.

Word is, this is how they’re selecting. ⬇️ 

*Illustration not to scale. The Ryder Cup uses a much bigger hat for their ticket lottery.

Here we believe that books, like March Stones, are forever.

KP: You recently wrote a lovely book called Searching in St. Andrews that I thoroughly enjoyed and everyone should read. I remember a player telling me one time, "Yo, Normal Sport was good but nobody reads books." So why did you pick a book as your medium of choice?

Sean Zak: I think people do consume books! I just think they’re told what books to read these days, rather than independently seeking them out. And frankly, I think Tour pros are sneaky big readers. Sorry to kill the premise there. (A tiny content dream I have is an interview series with players about the most recent book they read. When pros aren’t talking their swing or their scores, they can be incredibly introspective.)

Anyway!

I think that project of mine took on the shape of a book because the summer I spent in St. A lended itself so neatly to individual chapters. My arrival, the launch of LIV, my week caddying for Joel Dahmen, Rory vs. Cam at the Open and then the comedown.

That’s what allowed me to believe in it in that form. I also distinctly recall a convo or two with you where you said how important it is to simply etch down the summer of ’22 in stone. It’s the most pivotal summer in pro golf history, right? We’ve covered the hell out of it on websites, but how lasting are those articles when brands shutter or need to refashion their sites?

Getting it all into a hard copy, weaving my own story through it a bit, capturing St. Andrews during a moment in time — I am genuinely excited to re-read it in five years.

Ed note. I think being excited to read your own stuff at a later date is a really important quality in writing. If you aren’t excited to read it, then it’s almost certain nobody else will be.

KP: Look at the arc of your career, what have you gotten more crusty about and what have you grown a soft spot for?

Sean Zak: I’ve spent about 30 minutes thinking about how to answer this question. And I think the answer is a bit complicated. But I’ve become more hardened than ever in the purpose of media, journalists, writers, podcasters, etc. [And no, this is not a clap-back at Rory’s response in your previous Q&A ;)]

Of course, I am biased. But the sports world is only getting more and more complicated, with private equity, gambling initiatives, PEDs, NIL deals, etc. The collective “media,” when journalism is done properly, simply work as an assistant to golf fans (and sports fans). We’re telling you what you need to know, and sometimes how you should think about it.

When something earth-shattering happens — like the launching of a new golf league backed by money from a sovereign wealth fund — the media manifest a governing body of sorts, asking hard questions, offering up time for explanation, and working on behalf of fans, sponsors, history, etc. This governing body is absolutely full of faults, just like the others. But ultimately, especially in golf, it seems to speak with a set of morally sound ideals. Yes, I’m biased, but for it to get cast aside by some is sad, though they’re entitled to their opinion.

My soft spot is adjacent to that. I think we put microphones in front of top players too much. When Scottie Scheffler wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he’s talking to the press on the record each day of that tournament. And then he’s doing a pre-tournament presser days later at the Players, when nothing has happened in the previous two days!

And when he wins the Players, he’s asked to do press on the record each day again. We get stuck in a loop of “[He or she] has to talk,” and before long we get to a point where players are run down and annoyed at media. You saw it with Scheffler late this year. He was tired of the questions — the same questions — even softly critiquing questions he was getting. I think you saw that with Nelly Korda during her epic run in the spring and summer, too. If we didn’t prompt players with a microphone and that camera staring at them so constantly, I think they’d enjoy sharing themselves a lot more.

KP: Do you have any regrets about how you thought about, wrote about or generally covered LIV? I have some of my own, which is why I'm asking, and I have been wondering if other people in our world have similar feelings.

Sean Zak: I think my biggest regret is not establishing earlier on some human sources who could speak to Saudi Arabia, its government, its goals, the people tapped into the Ministry of Sport, etc.

In the early days of LIV — and many days after, frankly — the terminology “the Saudis” started to mean something in general and not really in specific. The Saudis want this, the Saudis do that, etc. From media, from players, from … Jay Monahan. Was that the best phrasing we could manage, as far as describing the people involved and actions of a sovereign wealth fund? Probably not. But it hasn’t exactly been easy. The PIF and Yasir Al-Rumayyan have become shadow figures (maybe they’d prefer the term angel investors?) in the golf world, a label that seems to be softening with each Dunhill Links.

But like, how many times has Al-Rumayyan gone on the record about golf? Has he spoken about it publicly since June 6, 2023? We only hear about his golf obsession — which is clear as day — secondhand.

Oddly, I feel like I had a chance to say hello to him about a month after the framework agreement. He had popped out during a LIV practice round to play a couple holes himself. With rental clubs. Not during a pro-am, just a practice round, playing through Joaco Niemann and his Torque team. Very normal (sport) thing for the leader of a sovereign wealth fund to do, I guess!

Anyway, I balked at the chance to introduce myself and regret it.

KP: What is your favorite event to cover and why?

Sean Zak: It’s absolutely the Olympics. I’ve been lucky to cover two of them now, Tokyo and Paris. You’re embedded in a global capital where the best athletes in the world have come to show off … but also watch each other. Scottie Scheffler was touring the Louvre this year the same time I was. I had breakfast next to a runner from Great Britain. The U.S. cycling coaches were staying in my hotel!

As for the action, you have (some) golfers outright admitting that winning a gold medal would be greater than winning a major, because no one in their home country knows the PGA Championship, but they all watch the Olympics.

It takes the golf we know and contorts it with slightly different meaning, and we get just enough of a taste of it every four years to really believe in it. This year we had Jason Day backing off shots because he was so nervous to wear the green and yellow for Australia. I stood next to Lin Xiyu in August when she realized she won bronze. Her partner arrived to give her a hug and she burrowed her face into his shoulder in tears. For a bronze! I’ll never forget that visual.

Xiyu Lin, hands shaking and in tears as it becomes official that she’ll win a bronze medal.

— Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak)
3:25 PM • Aug 10, 2024

KP: You asked one of my favorite hypotheticals of all time, which was "How far back would you have to go before you could win a major championship with modern equipment while everyone else playing in it had to use their regular equipment?" So ... what's your answer?

Sean Zak: Hell yeah, let’s break out the numbers. I’m a 7 handicap with speed and a pretty good putter, so I shoot a lot of rounds of 80 to 83 on courses that are 6,300 to 6,500 yards, or essentially the length many courses tipped out at in the early 1900s. Given the slower green speeds back then, I’m thinking I could carve out a winning score around 310, which means I’m not winning anything until we time-travel to the 1908 U.S. Open at Myopia Hunt Club.

A little internet research tells me I’m not winning that week, though, because high winds meant only two players broke 80 on Day 1. You’d think I’d be a better wind player given my summers in the U.K. but a recent windy day has proven otherwise. To finally answer, I think the major I’m winning is the 1905 Open Championship at the Old Course. Apologies to James Braid and his hickories, but my 316 wins by two.

KP: What random shot do you think about more often than you probably should?

Sean Zak: Spieth’s tee ball on the 72nd hole of the 2018 Masters. He’s on the verge of 63, needs birdie for 62, and he heel-cuts it instead of just cuts it, sending his ball up the chute of the 18th hole, on the edge of that treeline. It hits one tiny branch and — I remember writing this at the time — the pine needles exploded in every direction, like a firework in the air.

It’s the most vivid shot in my mind because I watched from beside the 18th tee, just a few feet from Jordo. Close enough to hear him mutter to Greller about his ball barely passing the ladies tee (of which there are none at ANGC). That’s the view I’ll always remember because the trajectory of it wasn’t captured by the broadcast. There was no shot-tracer, and there was too much happening to really capture the moment.

If it doesn’t hit the branch, Spieth posts 14 under, maybe 15 under. Does Patrick Reed hold on with Spieth in the clubhouse? Who wins that playoff? Does Rickie Fowler squeeze into it? There’s nothing like a single golf shot (single pine twig?) that is sliding doors for two or three careers shifting.

Ed. note: …

KP: You recently wrote a smart piece about how the Tour (any tour) could copy YouTube golf's ideas and produce some great content. Sounds like something you would be good at coordinating and running. So my question for you: Unlimited budget, anything you want to do in golf media, what are you picking? Be as specific and as ambitious as possible.

Sean Zak: I would make a documentary on the new life of Tiger Woods. Dozens of books have been written about Tiger’s career, and HBO made a great doc about the triumphs and pitfalls of Tiger, all the way through the 2019 Masters.

But this current chapter of Woods could really provide a window into who he is, what he’s going through, what he believes in, etc. And inspired by “Federer: Twelve Final Days” I just think his day-to-day as a golfer, father, leader, businessman has never been more interesting. And perhaps never been more mundane, but that would be part of the point.

With unlimited budget, I think you’d catch his attention. Getting the man who owns a yacht named Privacy to open up would be a completely different pursuit. I just am so, so, so, so unfulfilled with what we know about his crash, and how he just tells us he does a lot of ice baths these days.

KP: You've been in this world for a long time. Is golf more or less meaningful to you now than it was when you started? 

Sean Zak: Oh, it’s wayyyy more meaningful. When I started playing, it was just a backyard game with grandpa. When I started writing about it, it was simply a means to begin a sports journalism career.

Now I’m deeply connected to people from Scotland and Australia and Japan, all because of this sport’s connective nature. Hopefully it’s not too much of a spoiler, but that’s kind of the essence of the book I wrote — that golf connects you to the world and incredible experiences through the people.

As a means to see the world and learn about it through people, it is endlessly meaningful.

Thank you for reading until the end.

You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.

And thank you to Sean for his time.

He is a good friend, a great writer and one of my favorite people in golf.

Don’t forget to enter the Ryder Cup giveaway!