letter
When Jake and I bought
Backspin from Phill Schmitt in
2015, we were excited to “marry”
both of our careers. It’s with a
heavy heart that I announce that
at the end of the year, we are
going to cease publication.
Jake and I love Backspin. We
love that it has allowed us to meet
hundreds of golf loving people
who have a passion for this crazy
game.
The sad part is that the
magazine isn’t failing. We’re doing
well. We get lots of attention, we
have fantastic advertisers and
we are very fortunate to have
allowed it to help us while our
children were in college. We were
even able to pay a couple of our
children to help out, primarily
our oldest son Shayne.
Shayne had the opportunity
to cover the Zurich Classic, play
and critique several courses and
interview medical professionals
who deal with golf-related
injuries.
I got the opportunity to fulfi ll
a dream – to own and run a
magazine, and the content
it has added to my classes
at
Southeastern
Louisiana
University is priceless. We began
as print and digital and moved
to digital only a year later,
increasing publication from bi-
monthly to monthly. That was
a big deal for us. With Jake’s
new job at Southeastern, we
couldn’t guarantee he would be
in the state for distribution, and
printing and mailing costs were
pretty outstanding. The digital
format allowed us to give our
advertisers and supporters a
break and continue sharing golf
news in the Gulf States Section
of the PGA of America.
Jake and I wanted to
highlight golf professionals and
celebrate the game. I think we
accomplished that. We also
learned to appreciate each
other’s professional talents a lot
more than we had before. I do
think Jake will appreciate me not
yelling
“NARROMINDED!”
at him on the last day of every
month.
So why the close? Well, most
of our kids fi nished school,
and the one who remains in
school is neither interested in
journalism nor golf. Jake and
I have both taken a couple of
sharp turns in our careers, and
we want to let it go while it is
ahead. Simply put, we’re afraid
our time commitment to it isn’t
sustainable long-term in order to
ensure quality and value for our
supporters.
For the last four issues, we will
continue to cover golf, especially
during the busy fall season. We
want to hear from you! Help us
go out with a bang and share
stories about what’s going on at
your club. We’re still here! This
isn’t goodbye yet.
On another note, please
nominate your favorite junior
golfer for Junior Golfer of the
Year! We will be making our
choice in August and putting
him or her on the cover for the
September issue.
Amber
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