There are few issues extra exhilarating than feeling butterflies on the primary tee. A 40km/h Scottish gust knocks me barely off stability, rips the seams of my windbreaker and creates an virtually disastrous flutter in my left contact lens. I battle to drive my tee into the semi-frozen floor earlier than teeing off at North Berwick Golf Membership, a 192-year-old hyperlinks course that epitomizes golf's sincere and imperfect beginnings, able to humiliate me. Numb fingertips and all, that is precisely the place I need to be.
As I embark on this new chapter, protecting golf for The Athletic, I really feel the primary stirrings of the tees. A lifelong aggressive golfer and advocate for reside sports activities journalism, I’m excited to affix a staff that I like as a reader and participant. I'm able to commit The Athletichis passionate viewers with golf tales that matter. I stay up for contributing to considered one of journalism's greatest organizations within the ever-changing media panorama.
My path to golf journalism started earlier than I ever stepped foot on a course. Grandparents put a miniature pink iron in my hand at 7 years outdated, on the age of four. It's nonetheless hidden in my childhood bed room closet.
I used to be raised in New York – not a typical breeding floor for golf addicts, however I persevered. I took a yellow faculty bus to highschool follow at Van Cortlandt Park, dwelling of the primary public course within the US. My mother generously took me by means of the unhappy zone for junior tournaments. (Thanks, Mother.) When it got here time for faculty recruiting, year-round play beckoned: I moved to Claremont, California, and joined the Pomona Faculty ladies's golf staff. After two full NCAA seasons and one as an change scholar in Scotland, the pandemic hit. Sport has taken on a brand new which means for a lot of, together with me.
Dealing with the tip of my aggressive profession, golf not served as a every day ritual, however a uncommon escape. I simply performed for the sake of enjoying. I discovered solace in being open air and introducing pals to the therapeutic nature of the vary.
Sheeeesh. That recoil. The fearless mastery approach. In case you're questioning what separates an excellent participant from an incredible one, this can be a nice instance. Hoping for a brief osmosis sport as I proceed to look at this 19 extra occasions https://t.co/p4pUCDm3Z1
— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) March 7, 2024
My appreciation for the sport has developed. I channeled it into the story.
A two-week stint as manufacturing lead for Fox Sports activities on the 2018 Shinnecock US Open and a digital editorial internship at NBC Sports activities first launched me into the realm of sports activities media. However shedding practically half of my school golf expertise to the pandemic led me to an necessary realization: In my post-graduate profession, I wanted to proceed to share my love of the sport that formed my training.
I interned and later labored as a contributing editor at Golf Digest. Most just lately, I used to be a breaking information author for Sports activities Illustrated's golf part, protecting every thing from the Saudi takeover of the boys's skilled sport to my first-hand expertise caddying for an LPGA Tour participant.
It's an odd time to be a golfer. The continuing energy battle between LIV and the PGA Tour has alienated followers, bringing greed and worldwide politics to the fore in a sport that has all the time emphasised integrity and custom. These are the rules that golf equipment like North Berwick have stood for for hundreds of years. These values first impressed my mother and father and grandparents to nurture my love for the sport. I do know that golf's ageless basis has not been damaged, and I hope to remind readers of that perception by means of my protection of The Athletic.
The Athletic stands for moral journalism and witty storytelling. And that's precisely why it's the very best place for me to serve the passionate group of golf followers I've come to know and respect by becoming a member of Brendan Quinn, Brody Miller and Hugh Kellenberger on a golf desk prolonged. Hopefully I'll additionally create a couple of new converts alongside the way in which.
I survived my opening shot on the east coast of Scotland and the butterflies have subsided. However I beloved that shivery feeling that pulsed by means of my torso on the primary tee. I don't know when that feeling will subside The Athletic. Possibly it by no means can be. I'm becoming a member of a revered group at a pivotal time within the historical past of the game I really like.
I welcome nervousness.
(High photograph: Courtesy of JD Cuban / TGR Basis)