CASEY BANNON

asey Bannon admits he was a bit of a young teenage bad boy growing up a dozen years ago in the Mount Vernon area of Northern Virginia : Cutting middle school , cratering grades , getting in fights , even a little underage drinking .

“ It was classic stuff ,” Bannon recalled . “ My dad ( a Blackhawk military helicopter pilot ) was deployed a lot and away from home , I had three sisters , and I guess I was a little angry , had no place to express it and was just acting out .” And then came golf . One summer , his concerned parents enrolled him in several golf camps , hoping it would keep him occupied and perhaps even light a spark and get him interested in the sport . He was a decent athlete , loved basketball and said he initially found golf “ too boring and too slow .”

Then came that spark , igniting what soon would become a raging fire . He was soon spending hours at the base driving range at Fort Belvoir .

“ I really caught the bug there ,” Bannon recalled , adding that by the time he was a high school freshman , he had obtained a junior membership at the Mount Vernon Country Club not far from home and “ I just wore them out .”

He was either on the range practicing for hours or playing as many holes as he could before the sun went down . Before that club membership , he had played some at Twin Lakes , a public course , and could barely break 100 . By the time he started his sophomore year of high school , he was scoring in the high 70s .

A New Venture These days , at age 25 , golf is still dominating his life , both on and off the course . He now lives in San Clemente , Calif ., and is an assistant editor at The Golfer ’ s Journal . It ’ s a slick , quarterly publication that features some of the finest long-form writing in American golf magazines . There are no swing or putting tips , no equipment reviews and no course rankings , the better to feature the work of some of the best golf writers around .

The Golfer ’ s Journal holds events at high-level golf courses around the country .

There ’ s not a lot of advertising , only because TGJ has a half-dozen sponsors — companies like Titleist , Footjoy , Scotty Cameron and Oakley sunglasses . And there are other revenue streams as well , with Bannon having a major editing and writing hand in the publication ’ s paywalled website , producing his own podcasts and writing a newsletter .

TGJ also holds a number of golf outings around the country , with between 70 and 100 players as paying participants . And Bannon helps organize them , as well .