Golf Punk is a new magazine for the anti-establishment. Most golf magazines go heavy on the coaching pages; Golf Punk has a regular Bunker Babes feature - under-dressed, over-excited models in the sandpit. This magazine is for those who play urban golf in Shoreditch. Word. Golf Punk is the brain child of Tim Southwell, variously described as a maverick, madman and genius, who edited Loaded after James Brown, failed to make his fortune in dotcoms and has re-emerged with a golf magazine under his arm.
Chins are now wagging in locker rooms from Wentworth to Troon, and the R&A has made it clear that neither Southwell, nor anyone from Golf Punk, will be welcome at the British Open next month. Southwell is unfazed. He has identified a new type of golfer, racier and more stylish, who would happily give two fingers to the R&A if it persisted in operating in the last century. He admits that his choice of title is extreme, adding, "but with virtually no marketing budget we needed to do something to draw attention to ourselves and anyone who looks at the magazine can see we`re serious about golf".
"The attitude is that people don't want to become golf club members. They don't want to be told off if their shirt is untucked. They don't want to have the stuffiness. They just want to get on and play the game," said John Dean, Golf Punk's publishing director.
"We are helping blow some of the smoke away. We are a little bit more relaxed but completely supportive and celebrative of the game. We don't really want this old clubhouse traditionalism," said Dean. "There are absolutely people who believe that golf is rock and roll." Believe.
