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Golf Journal
It s not every contributor to the magazine who wrote a 150-page master’s thesis on the role of mental illness in the work of Charles Dickens. Nor is it typical to have covered track and field for nearly a decade, including three Olympic Games. Then again, we’re happy to locate a typical contributors like Merrell Noden.
The 46-year-old New Yorker wrote three of the stories that arrive in your Golf Journal package this month. One saw him assessing the prospects for public golf in the wake of this month’s U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park (“A New Dawn”). Then he flew to Los Angeles to catch up with Saturday Night /_/Ve veteran Kevin Nealon (“Prime-Time Player”).
Finally, for a story appearing in the U.S. Open Championship Magazine, he camped out with golfers who wait overnight to land prized weekend starting times on the Black Course at Bethpage ( Midnight Masses: The Cult of Bethpage”).
Noden’s status as a freelancer means a patchwork schedule far different from his work from 19B6-92, when he was full-time at Sports Illustrated He has since written for publications as varied as Popular Science and Mojo, a British music book.
Noden’s own tale is not unlike that of Nealon, an accomplished athlete as a youth. Noden set the New Jersey state high school freshman record for the indoor 2-mile run (10:06) and cracked the state indoor 880-yard mark as a senior (1:54). He has completed about 10 marathons, his best a 2:30:34.
Golf has become a more likely pursuit because of knee problems. “I’m a once a-week player from April to the end of October.” he says, “with a one-week trip to Scotland just about every year. Everyone assumes that when you write about golf, you get to play four times a week.”
They also assume you play anywhere. Noden knows that’s not the case. He may have waited in line with the locals, but like many of you, he s waiting for I is first crack at Bethpage Black. — Brett Avery
