Veteran writers aim to serve Alabama golfers and golf tourists
FLORENCE, Alabama (Feb. 27, 2021) – Two veteran golf journalists have launched AlabamaGolfNews.com, an online platform to deliver news of interest to Alabama golfers to and out-of-state visitors looking for information about golf in the Yellowhammer State.
The two journalists, Gregg Dewalt and Dan Vukelich, will fill a niche no longer served by other news media: delivering strong, reliable coverage of amateur and collegiate golf, news from the Alabama-NW Florida PGA Section, news about local golf courses, including the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, equipment reviews and personality profiles.
“We intend to be the go-to source for all things Alabama golf,” Dewalt said.
AlabamaGolfNews.com covers golf in all of Alabama, including the Gulf Coast, Northwest Florida and southern Tennessee.
Dewalt’s depth of local knowledge of golf in Alabama will attract out-of-state users researching golf trips in Alabama. “The RTJ Golf Trail is obviously the strongest draw here, but we have 200-plus golf courses, many of them hidden and affordable gems.”
Dewalt, editor of AlabamaGolfNews.com, and Vukelich, the online editor, invite the golf industry to submit news releases about products, services and destinations to Dewalt via bamagolfnews@gmail.
“If it’s relevant to golf in Alabama, we want to hear from you,” Dewalt said.
Dewalt retired in 2020 as senior sports editor for the TimesDaily of Florence and the Decatur Daily following a 38-year career. He has long served as the freelance editor of the Tee Times newspaper in neighboring Tennessee. He lives in Florence, Ala.
Vukelich, a long-time government and investigative reporter and editor for newspapers in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico, started in journalism in 1976. He made the jump to golf writing in the late 1990s with a local golf column for The Albuquerque Tribune. In the early 2000s, he edited Sun Country Golf, New Mexico’s statewide golf magazine. He also edits NewMexicoGolfNews.com and writes freelance articles on golf travel for a variety of online golf sites, including Golf Chicago magazine, Morning Read and Where to Golf Next. He lives in Albuquerque.
Both men are members of the Golf Writers Association of America and the Golf Travel Writers Association and accumulated numerous sports writing and reporting and investigative awards during their newspaper careers.
“Just as strong reliable local news coverage is getting harder to find online, finding the results of local competitions is getting harder as well,” Vukelich said. “Parents of up-and-coming junior players want to see their kids’ names in the news just like the parents of prep football and basketball players do.”
The site, launched at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, eventually will produce regular email newsletters for readers who opt in via a form on the site. To sign up for the e-newsletter, fill out the form at alabamagolfnews.com