Australian Golf Digest is celebrating its 50-year anniversary with a 600th issue collector’s edition, including classic content and a special scratch and sniff section.
Australian Golf Digest is a multi-platform branding reaching more than 450,000 golfers each month across its magazine, website, social media channels and web television channel Australian Golf Digest TV.
The 180-page, 600th edition of Australian Golf Digest includes classic articles from the magazine’s archive, plus a range of new “treatments”, including a special gold foil and interactive ‘scrath and sniff’ cover, designed to tickle the senses of Aussie golfers with the aroma of freshly cut grass.
“We wanted to make this issue stand out and thought what better way to do that than to ignite the senses of readers with that great smell of teeing off at first light, that one thing we can all relate to – the smell of a freshly cut fairway or green,” said Australian Golf Digest Managing Director Nick Cutler.
“It’s a monumental achievement…600 issues – or 50 years – is a long time in the publishing game, and with the strong digital product offering we have developed, we can’t wait to see what the next 50 years has in store,” Cutler added.
Australian Golf Digest Editor-in-Chief Brad Clifton said reaching such a milestone was a testament to the power of golf and the people it attracts.
“Fifty years is a golden milestone in anyone’s language. For those of us at Australian Golf Digest, it’s the culmination of hundreds and thousands of articles, interviews, flights, hotel rooms, hits and misses over 600 adrenalin-filled deadlines, all met with the same rigour and enthusiasm to see our hard work laid bare in its most natural form – print.
“It’s also a testament to the observation made about sports writing by American scribe George Plimpton: ‘The smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature’.
Brad Clifton, Editor-in-Chief, Australian Golf Digest
“I thought Nick was joking about the scratch and sniff cover at first but it made perfect sense upon reflection: there’s nothing quite like a whiff of freshly cut grass before that first ball is struck, right? It’s that same richness and mystery to golf that keeps us excited to cover it and for our country to read about it in Australian Golf Digest for another 50 years.”
The anniversary issue takes a retrospective look at the game over the past five decades and includes contributions from the country’s most iconic players, including Greg Norman.
The issue also includes a ranking of the 50 greatest Australian golfers of all time, and details the most important courses that have contributed to the game in Australia.
Australian Golf Digest published through the COVID-19 pandemic and has seen its website traffic, social media engagement and subscriptions grow during this time.
“We realised very early, via our online and social channels, that golfers across the country were as keen as ever to engage with us,” Cutler said.
“For many people, golf has been their one escape during this terrible pandemic. To play a small part in facilitating that therapeutic outlet has kept us focused and determined to deliver a quality product.”
Added Clifton: “Our game, which can be played alone yet parallel, happens to be oddly well-suited to a future where contagion is top of mind. And if the record-breaking rounds and equipment sales we’re seeing in Australia are of any great measure, our future is looking very bright. Suffice to say, our decision to publish through this whole ordeal has proven to be the right one.”
Australian Golf Digest’s 50-Year Anniversary Edition goes on sale nationally on Thursday September 24, and will be available through newsagents and supermarkets.
