On Friday, Sports Illustrated released their entire golf crew. That sucks. Not only because incredibly talented and experienced journalists like Bob Harig are now (temporarily) out of work. But one of the largest sports media empires is cutting virtually their entire coverage of the sport we all love. Storytelling is the greatest asset a sport has to drive engagement and fan interest. If there are less reporters at the events and fans have to rely on questions from tour employees, media who are financially linked to the tour they cover, or media who are represented by the same agencies as the players, then output is inevitably going to be sanitised. Professional golf is already boring when it compares to other sports. The legendary characters of Arnie, Seve, Chi Chi etc are long gone and now the vast majority are media trained robots who offer very little in the way of a story unless it’s pulled out of them by a willing journalist. That’s only going to get worse the more great writers become unemployed. I haven’t been in the golf media game for long, but I have learned one very important lesson. Authentic storytelling is paramount to the success of the sport and elevating stars. I’d like to wish every single one of the great journalists that was released by SI all the best for the future and I hope they land in another important role within the sport as soon as possible.