By: Richard Rapp | rrapp@massgolf.org
When we set out to create a new video series last summer, we knew it would require a period of trial-and-error. At the time, I figured that approach would be temporary, and soon we’d settle into a reliable framework for our episodes. Now, a season in, I wouldn’t say we’ve settled into a framework, but I’ve come to see our methodology less as trial-and-error, and more as recurring opportunity for improvisation.
No two episodes of the series have been the same, because no two golf courses are. And really, no golf course worth a damn is the same course from one day to the next. The variability is fundamental to the game. So why not lean into it?
Beyond the golf course itself, until we arrive on the property, we’re never quite sure what we’ll get in terms of guest personalities, historical markers, lighting, etc. The only variable I’ve come to rely on, really, is enthusiasm. The beauty of talking to someone, employee or player, about their home course, public or private, is that they are inevitably prideful and eager to tell its story with a personal slant.
Personal slant is key. We’re not looking to catalogue the measurables for the sake of a golf course atlas. Fuzzy local lore, design oddities, turn shack must-haves, rituals—that’s the meat on the bone.
Speaking of enthusiasm, these episodes are a labor of love, and I hope that comes across in our presentation. Our crew of usually two, at most three, genuinely seems to slip under the spell of whichever course we’re featuring and emerges from the shoot with a need to do it justice on screen.
Essentially, we’ve been learning how to make a TV show, while simultaneously falling for these fantastic golf courses, which is a recipe for genuine, if unpolished, storytelling. What I’m saying is, we’re winging it (shoutout to the Chicken Wing Open), and I hope viewers enjoy the spontaneity and sincerity of it all. We’re Massachusetts golfers that love the game and how deeply its roots run in this state.
With one season in the books, I want to pause and rewind to the top 5 moments that had me laughing, or daydreaming, or just generally golf-geeking in the editing bay:
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