A day in the life of a golf blogging dad
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EXCLUSIVE: A day in the life of a golf-blogging dad [PICS]

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Let's face it: A 30-year-old, bald, stay-at-home, golf-blogging dad is not going to land a photo shoot. It's not a sexy topic. And, frankly, I think I might break a nice camera if they used it to shoot me.

But after seeing the glam shots from the folks at golf.com of some of golf's most stunning women, I thought that it might be worthwhile to share a little bit about my daily life and just how this site happens. So, if you'll indulge me (and you probably won't, but this was a fun art project while my son is napping), check it out.

(All photos, credit selfie.)

Work starts at 7 a.m.

happy-dad

My day with the boy starts at just a touch before 7 a.m. He loves to play, like any infant-bordering-on-toddler, so that's what we do to start the day. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out something I might write about that is a different slant on the same story you'll see six other places today (or at least I will, I read almost every version of that story). My Feedly reader app is third best friend after my wife leaves in the morning, behind my son and dog. Some days, it's second. (Sorry, Dottie.)

Dottie-smiling

Product testing is tough to do

ball-testing

As I've gotten back into things here at Golf News Net, people are kind enough to send me product to try. It doesn't happen on the days I'm watching the boy. I usually read up on it in between pulling my son away from dangerous things, like the stairs and floor lamps.

My bag doesn't change very much

my-bag

A couple of days per week, I can head out to the course to try out some new things. I frankly feel unqualified to review golf equipment. It's not because I'm a bad player. Hardly. It's because I don't have resources like Trackman at my disposal to let the numbers speak for themselves. And I don't feel like a bad or unusually great day on the links -- I usually play nine for brevity's sake -- should determine how I evaluate equipment. It's just a personal decision, just like club-buying is, which is why you should have a launch monitor around when you try new sticks.

Shooting video isn't glamorous

shooting-video

When you watch anchors on TV, like Golf Channel, there's a decent chance they're not wearing complementary pants with that nice suit jacket. There's a decent chance they're wearing shorts or sweats under the desk. No problem with that. I'm the same way. I have a go-to shirt in my office in the event that I want to shoot a quick video but don't want to grab a change of clothes. I cycle out the shirt, don't worry.

spare-shirt

I also do, indeed, blog in my basement. I also shoot video and record podcasts there. I write in my living room and on the go, thanks to my mobile. I never write at Starbucks.

There's nothing fancy about a webcam video

You can do it, too, if you want. I bought a nice $70 webcam from Best Buy, and that's what I use to shoot my talking-head videos. You probably don't watch them, but I think it's important to have practice in front of a camera -- in case, you know, someone in TV would like to hire me. Maybe someone reading this? No? OK, back to that list of million-dollar ideas I have to help usher me into early retirement.

I love podcasting

podcasting

If I could, I would host a national golf talk show everyday. I love radio, more than writing. When done right, it's the medium for the best in-depth conversation. I did a podcast for a decade, often times talking to myself and my parents for the first few years. But people were kind enough to join me for what I thought was fascinating conversation. I got way better at it over time, and then I stopped because it's hard to write 20 blog posts during a major and fit in time to record a 30-minute show. Now, though, I'm back at it. It's so much more sane-sounding to talk to yourself into a microphone as opposed to in a beige room with no recording equipment.

I read...a lot

reading-lots

Some people play games on their phone. I read. I scroll through hundreds of articles every day in the hopes of finding maybe three that I'd like to touch on here. Three. A lot of the stuff I read isn't golf-specific. It's sports. It's politics. It's technical. It's abstractly related to golf. If you see the angle I take on a story, there's a decent chance you can figure out how I got there. There are no more than four degrees of separation between the story I'm writing and what spurred that idea. Hopefully you'll recall the first few paragraphs of the story to get the tie-in. Scroll up.

I work hard

panorama

Everyone works hard. But when someone might suggest I specifically don't, it's hard to convey the point. After all, I just write, right? There's a lot more to it than that, and few people can be empathetic of that truth. But I'm very fortunate to love what I do, even if that means I have to sneak in a shower while my son is napping. Speaking of which, I gotta go.

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is a scratch golfer...sometimes.

Ballengee can be reached by email at ryan[at]thegolfnewsnet.com

Ryan occasionally links to merchants of his choosing, and GNN may earn a commission from sales generated by those links. See more in GNN's affiliate disclosure.

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