The digital age has wreaked havoc on print journalism turning the most established outlets upside-down shaking the most valuable assets from their trouser pockets into a discarded heap on the ground.

As a result we now have golf magazines trying to fill a hollow digital footprint without the credible writers to produce content worth reading. What you have left are internet magazine subscriptions to lists of Top 100 Golf Courses, collections of worthless golf tips, reviews of the latest “new and improved” equipment you don’t need, and infomercials for the next great destination golf resort of your dreams. If you are truly interested in creative golf content this is not going to scratch that itch.

Fortunately a couple of new print publications have risen from the ashes who have assembled the best golf writers, photographers, and illustrators to create long form articles on a wide array of subjects of golf interest. The templates are like none you have seen before-little or no advertising to distract you from the content, no grandstanding articles about the professional golf tours and their stars, and no sell-your-soul patronizing reviews of the next generation equipment that is going to shave strokes off your scores.

One of these publications is McKellar Magazine which has been publishing since 2018 under the capable direction of their founding editors Lawrence Donegan and Thomas Dunne. The list of contributing writers they have assembled is a Who’s Who of accomplished golf scribes of the last thirty years. It includes Michael Clayton, Lloyd Cole, Lorne Rubenstein, John Huggan, Mark Cannizzaro, John Strawn, Geoff Shackelford and many, many more.

In the five editions they have published so far you will find a wide array of excellent articles to tantalize your golf interests. These include glib interviews with Dottie Pepper, Chubby Chandler, and Rory McIlroy, an article about the symbiotic relationship between Sweeten’s Cove and The Waffle House, the back story of why Amana appeared on the hats of golf greats Bob Goalby, Julius Boros, and Jim Colbert, and Michael Clayton’s proverbs of the design features of venues in the Australian Sand Belt that are influencing the works of today’s most prolific course architects.

Every edition is chock full of this kind of well written, engaging stuff that will keep you glued to your favorite reading recliner. For a generation of people who grew up getting ink on their fingers from reading print publications this is manna from heaven.

You can learn more about what these guys are up to and order the magazine through the McKellar Magazine Website. At a cost of about $20 an issue delivered the price may seem steep but remember this is not your father’s golf magazine business model-there are no advertiser revenues to subsidize your reading habits.

McKellar has put out five robust issues so far. So don’t tarry, invest in the most recent issue, this is a Golf Companion you will be glad you welcomed into you personal library.

McKellar Magazine (2021)