After 60 years writing for newspapers, SJA member Peter Corrigan is starting a new career on the internet.
Corrigan’s final “Hacker” golf column appears in the Independent on Sunday this weekend, and the following day Corrigan is transferring the column to a website, thegolfinghacker.com.
“‘It is a strange feeling launching yourself naked into the stratosphere after spending so long cosily tucked up in the warm folds of a newspaper,” Corrigan said, “but I’m looking forward to it. It is a wrench but nothing lasts forever and I leave the Sindie on the best of terms after 19 enjoyable years.”
Cardiff-based Corrigan is the latest confirmed departure from the Independent and IoS sports coverage (others include photographer David Ashdown and interviewer Brian Viner) following the merger with the Evening Standard‘s sports desk.
Corrigan’s extraordinary 60-year career started as a copy boy on the South Wales Echo in 1952 and after national service in the army, he covered Newport County, Cardiff City and Wales for the Echo before moving to London in 1963 to join the Daily Herald. He moved on to The Sun before working at the Daily Mail from 1966 until 1969.
He became chief football correspondent for The Observer in 1973 and took over as sports editor in 1978. During his 10 years as sports editor he began a comment column under the Observer “eye”. In 1988, he moved to other areas of the paper, becoming chief associate editor before being tempted back on the road as golf correspondent.
In 1993, Corrigan moved to the Independent on Sunday in 1993 as sports columnist and golf correspondent and 14 years ago started a column about the despair of being a bad golfer. “The Hacker” has a following among the vast army of golfers who don’t play the game very well, which encourages him to keep it going online.
“After so many years chronicling the brilliance of super stars, it is a pleasant change to write about the hopelessness at the other end of the spectrum. It is also an excuse to carry on playing bad golf two or three times a week,” he says.
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