Nessmith's rant puts onus on bloggers to cover the golf industry

Golf bloggers, you have been called out, it appears. Fairly or unfairly, it seems Managing Editor Mark Nessmith thinks you all missed the boat on the recent “partnership” between the PGA Tour and Golf Digest.

It is a more important story than the attention it has received and is clearly an example of the continued dilution of the mainstream news. You just can’t be considered an unbiased news source if you’re in bed with those you should be covering.

“I figured bloggers, those can’t-be-bought-at-any-price chroniclers of what’s going on, would at least see through the fog on this one,” Nessmith wrote in a WorldGolf.com Magazine column.

I believe, however, that it shows the diverseness of golf bloggers. You are not a group of hardcore journalists looking to break the big story. You are someone like Jam Boy telling his experiences as a caddie, or Golf Chick, a devoted player who gives us the female perspective of playing.

Someone like Robert Thompson, however, loses credibility as a blogger by not mentioning this situation. Having his own “partnership” with the PGA and Golf Digest, Thompson isn’t like the golf bloggers I enjoy covering for the most part, however. Just because someone from the mainstream media writes a blog, he is not a blogger, per se.

While I think Mark may be a little hysterical on this issue (really now, didn’t most of us imagine that GD and the PGA Tour already had an “agreement?"), it can be a learning experience for those among you who want to be on top of goings on in the golf establishment. Bloggers and blog communities like Insta Marv and The Sandtrap would benefit from examining things such as these. And it was an item that could use an injection of Golf Punk’s wit.

But overall, I find Mark’s rant to be a sketch overzealous. Being a blogger, in the purest sense, means having no responsibility to chase down news. There are some that do, of course, but that doesn’t mean any blogger should conform. Being true to yourself is a blogger’s job.