Sean Martin interview: PGA Tour journalist talks about his love of golf and more

Whatever the case, it seems to me - guilty on all charges, by the way - that there are more voices, growing louder, than in certain other sports. And many of them want hearing. If you've time to get through a dozen podcasts each week, read the latest Ask Alan, and glance over both sides of the wall which divides the nostalgists and the progressives, you'll be better off for having done so. Most of the time, at least.

Still, there is an alternative, and that's to abide by an old adage of journalism which says that if everyone is looking one way, you should start by looking the other. In this particular clubhouse, where the erudite Brandel Chamblee is offering a vocal deconstruction of the day just gone and the data analysts purr over another job well done, there's a man at the bar, alone with his iPad, looking at some numbers.

"I love telling people something that they don’t know, rather than being the 100th person to pontificate on a subject," explains Sean Martin, senior editor at PGATOUR.com. "Some people pontificate quite well, but that’s just not my strength."

I don't ask him what his strength is because, aside from seeming downright rude, I suspect he's the type of man to insist that's for others to decide. And because I think he said it without saying it: Martin appears to recognise that his is to dig, more so than to dive - and he just loves digging.

"I am a huge golf nerd," he admits. "It started in high school, when I worked at Westlake. We got Golfweek in the pro shop and I would pore through the scoreboard section because I wanted to play college golf, so I wanted to see what other people were shooting. My first job at Golfweek was compiling the scores for that scoreboard section. You learn to scour the internet for tournament results. I learned how to navigate the online golf universe."

That skill, that rigour, has seen Martin follow a path parallel to some of the superstars he once strode alongside while hardly anybody else was watching - Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and the dozens more who never quite made it. It makes me wonder whether, in his heart, he's so much a purist that the smooth and the polish of the PGA Tour isn't always able to scratch the itch.

"I do miss the amateur game, especially the NCAA Championship and US Amateur. The US Amateur visits some classic courses, and you can walk down the middle of the fairways with the players. It’s nice to see historic courses played by elite players from that vantage point. But most of all I miss the relationships. It’s so much easier to develop relationships with your subjects on that smaller stage."

That there is a problem, and it's one he's not alone in trying to solve: how do you add layers of context and understanding to go with the PGA Tour's treasure trove of data? How do you get to the person, rather than the player, in an era some consider to be more conveyor-belt than characterful?

Martin, who puts Spieth high on the list of those he finds most interesting, has his own ways of solving the problem.

"There are still plenty of smart and articulate players, but I do think they’re very cautious because of social media and soundbite media environment. Players are afraid of a longer quote being condensed to one quip and taken out of context, and then being pilloried for it.

"That’s a big reason why I’ve started learning more about Excel and how to sort through the massive data that the TOUR has to try and find interesting statistics. And why I’ve been spending more time learning as much as possible about the history of the game. I think both of those things help put the game and its current players and results in context, and it makes stories more interesting without needing to lean on a witty quip."

He's also embracing the various ways in which golf journalism has evolved, which inevitably means picking up a microphone for a podcast and, in this particular case, appearing on PGA TOUR LIVE.

"I enjoy the television work mostly because I enjoy expanding my skills. I love writing but, most of all, I love telling stories. And there are plenty of ways to do that, whether through written stories, video, podcasts, and so on.

"Doing PGA TOUR LIVE has been eye-opening. You’re trying to talk intelligently while a producer is giving direction in your ear and you’re trying to look in the proper camera.

"It’s been difficult learning to talk while staring at a large screen displaying a close-up of my face. Right now, I’ve just been doing two-minute hits on PGATOUR LIVE, though. As I tell people, if I can’t talk intelligently about golf for two minutes we have bigger problems here."

For now, like the rest of us, Martin can do little but sit and wait - though I suspect he's wasting little of this time. Still, it must have been frustrating to sign off not only as he was getting going, but as his weakness - Hideki Matsuyama - appeared ready to reemerge from a lengthy hibernation.

I can't resist asking Martin to ponder what might have been - not just at the PLAYERS, where Matsuyama opened with a round of 63, but over the three years which have passed since he looked set to follow a Firestone romp with a major, before a difficult back-nine in the PGA Championship put paid to that.

"I think it’s a combination of things. The putter definitely doesn’t help. I think the 2017 PGA was a tough one to get over. And then I think as the drought lengthens, it gets easier to lose confidence or start pressing. I’m sure he’s under a lot of pressure to win again."

That's about as close as he comes to pontificating. In Martin's world, nothing is certain except that which is certain. Best not to dwell too much on the ifs and buts. "The 63 was nice to see. It was the fifth first-round 63 in THE PLAYERS history," he says, although there's more: "Three of the previous four were shot by the eventual champion."

Not even the PGA Tour's preeminent facts man can resist speculating a little from time to time.

More from Sean Martin...

Favourite tournament covered on-site…

2008 US Open

Favourite tournament watched as a fan...

1998 US Senior Open, the first professional event I watched.

Favourite PGA Tour golf course…

TPC Sawgrass. We can play it in the summer and it’s interesting to watch a professional event on a course you know so intimately.

Favourite player…

Rory McIlroy

Favourite interviewee…

Rory McIlroy

Favourite commentator or pundit…

Arron Oberholser

Best recent innovation in golf…

Affordable launch monitors. You’re starting to see launch monitors drop down to the $500 price point. Kids are going to grow up and have their wedges dialled in.

When did you fall in love with golf…

Definitely at Westlake. It was a great course because kids could walk it easily and reach the holes in regulation. The range was lit so we could hit balls at night, as well. I remember going to a local bookstore to read David Leadbetter instruction books with Chris Como.

One thing you most miss about it and/or the tournament you’re most looking forward to…

The prospect of a fall Masters is very intriguing.

One change you’d make to the sport…

I think, recreationally, I’d like to see more short courses. I returned to Westlake earlier this year, and it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Some would scoff at a 5,000-yard course, but now that I have two boys and don’t play much, it’s nice to make birdie on a hole of any length. It also would be the perfect course to take my son. He’s three years old and obsessed with the game. He’s a big McIlroy fan.

Which player(s) are you most looking forward to covering in the coming years and why?

I’m very excited about the triumvirate of Hovland, Morikawa and Wolff.

Can you give us a name to follow who isn’t yet on the PGA Tour, but from whom you’re hopeful of big things?

I’ll give two. The first is Takumi Kanaya. He attends the same university that Hideki attended (Tohoku Fukushi). They both won the Asia Pacific Amateur (Hideki won it twice, Takumi won it once and lost in a play-off). They both shot a third-round 68 in their Masters debut. They both won on the Japan Tour as amateurs.

The other is Ricky Castillo. He just finished his freshman year at Florida and is the No. 2-ranked player in both college and amateur golf. He won his last two tournaments before the season was ended by the pandemic.

You’re big on numbers – is there a specific statistic or number right now, or historically, which really blows your mind?

This is always my go-to: Tiger Woods was the reigning US Amateur champion when he won the Masters by 12 strokes.

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