GeoffShackelford.com In Partnership With GolfDigest.com**

/

So let's just get the inevitable speculation and conjecture out of the way: Tiger's failure to renew with Golf Digest deal was not caused by the need to free up funds to pay me.

But yes, the day has finally arrived when this site has taken on a partner. I'm also joining the Golf World masthead as a contributing writer, though subscribers know I've been contributing to their pages for a few years now.

Naturally I'm thrilled and honored to be part of the Golf Digest family. To your inevitable second question...no, I don't plan to change.

Oh, you eagle eyes may spot subtle changes in tone or raise an eyebrow when I link to a GolfDigest.com item, but my intention and emphatic instruction from Golf Digest is to continue doing what I do in the style you are accustomed to.

A feed of my most recent posts will now appear on the revamped GolfDigest.com News And Tours page, as will occasional contributions to their website.  Otherwise this site remains at this URL with the same attitude and mission that began after The Future of Golf was published: to cover state of the game issues with insight and, on occasion or when appropriate, a touch of wit (something the late, great Stu Schneider encouraged during this site's early days).

And if you haven't hit refresh yet, then you don't know that the site has been freshened because, well, it was time.

The old site look (click to enlarge)A few changes and incorporation of suggestions:

-A new masthead debuts incorporating the same postcard art, but modernized, refined and tuned up by Photoshop artist Tom Naccarato. GolfDigest.com's logo now adorns the sage scrub hill of Rustic Canyon and we've added an "Established 2003" to recognize the nearly eight years the site has been around. (Internet age-wise makes the site 56 years old.)

- A white and blue color scheme in coordination with GolfDigest.com and because I think it looks clean. Simplicity and ease of reading remains a priority.

-An RSS feed of recent GolfDigest.com postings now tops the lone sidebar on the right. You'll find everything else in the sidebar to be pretty similar, with links to other sites and my past articles, except...

- Improved (I hope) site speed on mobile devices and when you are visiting via a slow connection speed. 15 posts appear on the homepage now instead of 20. Condensed are the long lists of Amazon links. This is still a work in progress depending on early speed reviews. However, I plan to create a new "recommended reading page" and intend to continue interviewing authors and promoting books no matter how hard the publishing industry tries to remain in the 20th Century.

- The daily quote atop the site is now going to be Tweeted (@GeoffShacQuotes), which will allow those of you who rely on Twitter as a news source to subscribe to the quote feed. As many requested, you will now have the ability to scroll through an online archive on the @GeoffShacQuotes Twitter page to find posted quotes. I've been Tweeting the quotes since Christmas day, 2010. Both feeds can be viewed and accessed via the Twitter widgets in the righthand sidebar.

- @GeoffShac will continue to be my primary Twitter account and act as a source for my site feed, but I will also still chime in with real Tweets or re-Tweets. For those who don't like the cold nature of a straight feed to Twitter, I hear you, but it saves me a lot of time having posts go straight to tweets and for readers accessing the site via Twitter, Flipboard or other new ways. For those of you who don't use Twitter, ignore the preceding comments.

- Archives remain intact. GeoffShackelford.com remains the URL which not only allows you to keep the same bookmark, but keeps six years of archives in place. In recent months many of you have asked about finding an old post.  You have several options. Besides the excellent Search option at the top of the page, the Topics and Archives options make it pretty easy to find old content. Those links are now found immediately below the masthead.

- Commenting remains open and unregistered. I'm hoping when Squarespace updates their excellent hosting technology that they'll allow for the option to have registered commenters as well as anonymous posting so that registered users can communicate with each other more fluidly, search past postings and do many of the other things you requested.  Sorry, I know this wasn't the answer many were looking for.

I hope you continue to find many reasons to visit the site in 2011 and please don't hesitate to comment on the new look, but go easy on the new partner!