• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, November 3, 2005

An initial run through the November issue of Golf Magazine made me wonder what I'd gotten myself into. First there were the Glamour-ous cover lines ("Nail the new sweet spot," "Lower your scores with their magic moves"). Then the first few pages revealed a host of women's-mag staples: tons of reader Q&As, a self-test, a decidedly non-goofy "goofy questions" drill, even a cutesy-pie events calendar (which appropriates without attribution the sand wedge/sandwich bit from a particularly memorable ep of "The Simpsons"). Save for the absence of the adjective "multi-orgasmic," I thought I'd unwittingly wandered into the forbidding netherworld of--gasp!--the service publication.

Fortunately for whatever teensy shred of editorial credibility I have left, I fought my instinct to throw down the mag and frantically dial poison control. Because outside of these few puzzling blips, Golf Magazine has evolved into one of the sharpest men's titles out there.

The November issue accomplishes what 3,273,764 would-be multi-genre publications have attempted: namely, merging a niche subject with lifestyle content in a way that feels natural. Sure, this is probably a lot less difficult to do with a sport like golf or tennis--both of which naturally lend themselves to sportswear and travel tie-ins--than with, say, extreme pottery, but you don't see too many other folks pulling it off with such apparent ease.

"The Starter," the front-of-the-book collection of blurbs, deftly mixes conventional touches (a first-person narrative from Lee Westwood) with slightly quirkier ones (the group Q&A,"What Tour players think about...", a showcase of products for golfers with physical disabilities). Sure, the mag pushes the celebrity thing a bit too hard here--Denis Leary AND a former "Apprentice" winner? My (tin) cup runneth over--but the extraneous items are kept happily succinct.

The "Your Game" section that follows, on the other hand, excels from a design perspective. Tips on hitting over trees are illustrated via a centerfold-ish vertical spread teeming with both close-up and far-off photos; graphically, the treatment offers the needed perspective. Equally attractive is the four-page foldout on the "superhero moves" of Woods, Singh, Mickelson et al, in which all pix are appended with concise but telling nuggets of advice. I imagine most golf titles would have little difficulty conveying such information; Golf Magazine, however, does so in a way that's easy on the eyes.

This isn't to say that the November issue completely avoids the... what would be more of a cliché here, "sand traps" or "water hazards"? I don't see the point of the mag's showier graphic flourishes, like an iguana pic plopped in the middle of the letters page. I take issue with the kowtowing tone of the Jim Furyk Q&A (questions start off with kissy-kiss banter like "you seem to thrive under pressure" and "you're obviously competitive"). And I question the placement of a two-page wine spread that follows 20 or 30 pages of in-depth golf advice (Hellooooo, non-endemic advertisers! Why not keep the ball rolling with caddies' stock picks? From what I hear, Fidelity has a robust print budget).

These confounding choices aside, the November Golf Magazine... "scores a hole in one" or "plays it close to the pin"? Banality brigade, it's your shot.