Q&A: Gabby Herzig

Issue No. 128 | Nov. 2, 2024

This week’s Q&A is with Gabby Herzig, who covers golf for the Athletic/New York Times and is a friend and someone whose takes I enjoy and trust.

Because I am 100 years old, she has to teach me things like what a pick-me girl is (and who the pick-me golfers are 👀) and has been a wonderful addition to our traveling cohort of colleagues who basically just try and make each other laugh all the time.

She also actually played college golf unlike most of the rest of us morons so she comes at golf media with both 1. More experience in the golf world than most and 2. A fresh perspective free of the jadedness that time often brings about.

I originally ran part of this Q&A last year, but we went back and updated it and refreshed it for a 2024 version.

Hope you enjoy the interview!

KP: What is one weird, quirky, normal sport-y thing about golf that amuses you right now?

Gabby: There are a lot of normal sport-y things that live in my head rent free. Using magnetic ball marker clips (so dorky, yet so practical), walking dogs on the Old Course at St. Andrews (imagine the same at Yankee Stadium), keeping handwritten scorecards on the PGA Tour (just think about that for a second.) The list goes on.

But there’s a slightly more philosophical quirk that I’m currently fixated on. 

To win on the biggest stages in the sport, players almost have to forget what they’re doing. You hear major champions say things like, “I just played my game” and “I stuck to my game plan.” The comments are easy to brush over, but they actually say a lot about the mental game required to win.

The concept behind those kinds of remarks is super, super weird. Pros work hours, weeks, and years to win tournaments. But when they’re going through the motions, the best way to achieve the ultimate goal of winning is to block out the possibility completely. Failing to do so will result in utter disaster—and that’s when we see pros fold under pressure.

The best players in the world dream of winning major championships, but on the back nine on Sunday, they flip a switch. Major champions somehow keep the thought of winning so far removed from their brains that they go into a sort of autopilot mode. They can stand over the ball during the most important round of their life and almost feel like they’re on the driving range.

It’s a paradox that makes my head spin—in the best way possible. And if all of that sounded like a bunch of psychological nonsense, this is all you need to know: Pro golf is just mental gymnastics, and if you pay close enough attention, it’s incredibly entertaining. Especially if you’re not a professional golfer. 

KP: What is the most surprising thing about your job/this profession?

Gabby: When I started in the golf media industry, I had one big fear. I’ve played golf almost my entire life. I often talk about golf with friends and family in my free time. I tend to organize my weeks around when I might be able to practice golf.

If my work revolved around golf, would it get … old?

The answer is that so far, it hasn’t. And I don’t really think it will. That was originally quite surprising to me. 

I mainly have this feeling because of the incredible journalists and media personalities that I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with at various tournaments and events. Many of them have been at this job for 20, even 30 years. And to my knowledge, most of them still find the profession just as thrilling as it was when they were interns or first-year news writers. I was surprised to discover that there is something new to learn in this job every single day. But I shouldn’t have been. 

KP: What is a golf moment/shot/event that you find yourself thinking about too often?

Gabby: I’ll answer this question with an overarching category of golf shots that live completely rent-free in my brain. A few examples before I divulge: Viktor Hovland’s hole-out from the fringe on the first hole of the 2023 Ryder Cup, Scottie’s chip-in birdie on the third hole at Augusta National in 2022 and this bump-and-run from Sahith Theegala at Pinehurst.

Oh, and lastly some absolute wizardry from Collin Morikawa at the Travelers.

If there’s anything that I will never be able to truly explain to non-golfers about what separates amateurs from professional golfers, it’s these types of shots.

The creativity around the greens on the PGA Tour is genuinely mind-blowing to me, as someone who never quite found her short-game groove (lol). I am eternally jealous of the shot-making and execution that seemingly comes so easily to the pros, whether it’s a gravity-defying spinny pitch shot or a toed-down 7-iron that takes nine perfect bounces before nestling next to the pin.

There is so much work and complexity behind those feel-y shots, I’m fascinated by the variety of short-game methodology when it comes to golf instruction … but that is a rabbit hole for another day. 

KP: What made you fall in love with golf?

Gabby: My grandparents, Harvey and Carol. They helped orchestrate my love for this silly game. They took me to a local driving range during my family’s annual visit to their home in Minneapolis, and at age six, it only took one airborne ball to get me hooked.

But their continued commitment—which still stands to this day—to showing me what golf is really all about helped me truly fall in love with the sport.

My grandparents taught me about how special it is to get to know a stranger on the golf course and use the game to experience the world. They demonstrated how the game can be a never-ending exercise in personal development. (Example A: My 90-year-old grandfather is still regaining his strength from a tough case of Covid, but the fight to get back those extra five yards keeps him chugging along every day.)

They showed me how to use golf as an escape, a therapy session, a networking opportunity, or even just a few hours of light exercise. Each of golf’s benefits is better than the next.

I hope to help my children and grandchildren find the same love and appreciation of the game’s multifaceted advantages, just as Carol and Harvey did for me.

KP: I think of you as an outsider when it comes to golf media. Mostly because you're new-ish and have unique (and honestly, probably better) perspective compared to those of us who have been in it for a long time.

Give me one or two things that you think, "Well that should be done differently" that the rest of us are not seeing because they have become normalized to us.

Gabby: Not going to lie, I was stumped on this question at first. Mostly because I joined golf media because I already loved it, so there wasn’t much I wanted to change, per se.

I do think that introducing new voices to the space is incredibly important. I think it’s interesting that you see me as an outsider, if I’m being completely honest, because isn’t that the whole point of sports media? We are all outsiders looking in.

I think the beauty of the industry in general is that different people see the landscape in different ways, and providing that diversity of thought is how we are going to get more people to enjoy it — we can’t fit everyone into a single box.

Golf, in particular, can be very resistant to that idea, perhaps because of its long exclusionist history. There is definitely an “insider” mentality in golf media, and that even comes down to the lingo or the “inside jokes” that have been built up over time.

But in order to expand and grow the beat, I think we have to be relentlessly open to new voices. I think there can be a tendency for legacy golf media to dismiss opinions that might, on the surface level, seem uninformed or new or nontraditional. But that's not a bad thing.

Take YouTube Golf, for example. I wrote a longform piece earlier this summer about the YouTube Golf space and how the PGA Tour, in particular, has not been particularly welcoming of some incredibly influential internet personalities, despite their rise in success over the last 5+ years.

Those individuals are carving out a niche and attracting young people to the sport in ways that are unfathomable to a traditional media mind. As we saw at the Creator Classic in August, that mindset is really starting to change, and it’s very encouraging to see.

So, if there’s one thing I think golf media could “do differently,” I’d sum it up as this: Embrace the outsiders. 

KP: What is one thing you're into outside of golf that would surprise me?

Gabby: Live music! Not sure if that will surprise you or not … but I’ve probably seen too many concerts/performances in my lifetime to keep track. My music taste varies from The 1975 (my favorite band) to Carole King (my “oldies” playlist slaps) to Rüfüs Du Sol (can we talk about the new album?!).

My most recent attended shows have been very electronic/dance-y. I saw the Welsh duo Overmono last month. Then my brother and I saw Black Coffee, the legendary South African DJ, for the third time. I think growing up in New York City and going to college in SoCal really enhanced this interest of mine. I feel like a lot of people can relate to this, but I just love the atmosphere at a festival or concert. 

KP: You recently wrote a very normal sport story for the Athletic about how the ... presidential race could affect the future of men's professional golf. How often while working on that piece were you thinking, "This is completely absurd"?

Gabby: I’ll start off by saying it took me approximately 48 hours to work up the courage to literally pick up the phone and call the Department of Justice. That was the coolest “no comment” I’ve ever gotten.

So yes, I was definitely thinking — for the majority of the hours I spent on this story — about how completely and utterly insane this all is. I’m a golf journalist, and I filled my days by talking to antitrust experts and former DOJ attorneys about the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act of 1976 and its parameters for merger regulation. 

Ed. note: LOL

That being said, I firmly believe that the road to a complete deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF is so much more complex — and dependent on outside factors — than any of us can fathom.

That was the central inspiration for the assignment. It’s not as simple as looking at the photos of Jay and Yasir in Riyadh and saying, C’mon guys, let’s just hammer this thing out! I don’t think people really understand that. I’ll point to the very end of my story, where I talk briefly about the looming possibility of the DOJ requesting documents from the PIF/Saudis — and we know how that went last time. 

Another thing I was thinking during this three-week long deep dive into the intersection of presidential politics and golf was: Screw you, dad! I graduated from college during Covid in 2021, so we didn't have a traditional graduation ceremony until the following summer.

So, during a makeshift graduation dinner with 10 of my close friends and their parents, my dad stood up and gave a “roast” in place of a grad speech. During my portion, he poked fun at me for studying politics and deciding to become a golf journalist. It was funny, I’ll give him that. But now look at me! Really putting that liberal arts education to use. 

KP: Golf media (and golf in general) is very, uh, 39-year-old white male [raises hand]. How have you felt as a woman entering into that world? It's something I think about often with people like you, Claire and Beth Ann and I'm curious (and hopeful!) about how you have experienced it.

Gabby: I can’t speak for Claire or Beth Ann (who are both absolute ballers), but it never felt particularly different or new or weird to me. Of course golf media is a male-dominated industry, but I grew up loving a male-dominated sport. I’ve been in these spaces my entire life.

As a competitive junior and amateur golfer, I spent my weekends and practice days playing with my younger brother and the assistant pros at my home course. I played in men’s matches in high school and when I joined the University of Edinburgh Golf Club during my study abroad semester in Scotland.

When I go to any driving range, I expect to be the only woman, and I’m very pleasantly surprised when it’s not just me! Recently, I’ve felt a stronger female presence on golf courses than ever before, and that has been incredibly encouraging.

It’s different being in a male-dominated space for my job, of course. I always feel a self-imposed pressure to be especially sharp when I ask questions in press conferences. I’m very intentional with how I use my personal social media. But for the most part, being in this world has just felt like an extension of what I’ve always known. I will say, there is a badass cohort of women in golf media (and its various forms), and we’re gaining momentum by the day. Hally Leadbetter, Jordan Perez, Maddi MacClurg, Amanda Balionis, Meg Adkins, Addie Parker, Nicole Rae, Kira Dixon… I could go on!

Ed. note: And you should.

Even if this world starts to feel scary or intimidating as a young woman, I know where to find support when I need it. The beginning of my career in golf media was shaped by many of those strong female voices, and it continues to be to this day. 

Thank you for reading until the end.

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

And thank you to Gabby for her time.

Go follow her and read her at the Athletic!