Welcome to A Quick Round. A weekly Q&A series that deconstructs the journey that golfers and entrepreneurs alike take on their road to success. Their achievements – as well as their trials and tribulations – serve to inspire us, and our goal is to pass that inspiration along to our readers.

Last week, we served up Triple Bogey Brewing & Golf Co. with Geoff Tait. This week, we are excited to introduce you to Webb Emerson. Webb is tapping his passion for golf to produce compelling new content for his blog, Tight Lies. Webb will also contribute to our content here at G&E, so we thought you’d like to get to know him!

Think you or your company should be featured? Email me at [email protected]

Hey, Webb. Thanks for coming on to let our readers get to know you a bit. Let’s start with the basics – where are you from?

First of all, thanks for having me, Matt. I was born and raised in Memphis, TN. After graduating from Mississippi State University, I moved back to Memphis and have been back a little over two years. My fiancée Kelsey and I are getting married in October and are excited to be putting down roots in my hometown. Both of us have family here, and we’re a few hours form just about anywhere in the Southeast. Memphis has a lot of history, soul and what we like to call “grit and grind.” An awesome place to live and work.

Congratulations to you and Kelsey! Great time of year to get hitched. So, tell us about your blog, Tight Lies.

Sure – Tight Lies started out as a place for me to write about golf from an everyday golf addict’s point of view. It started as a blog that consisted of PGA Tour reviews and recaps and my weekly stories of rounds with friends. In almost two months, the content has expanded to course reviews, book and product reviews, social media and some merchandise. Right now, I am posting on the site around three times a week and on social media every day.

And obviously, your content has caught our eye. Let’s take a quick step back. What is your professional background?

I work full time as a project manager for a commercial construction company. We build anything from schools to apartment buildings and anything in between. Most of our work is based in the Memphis area, but we have projects in almost every state in the Southeast. Some of my favorite work is the rehabilitation of historic buildings. My background in design and construction has really sparked my interest in golf course design and restoration.

And what’s your background in golf?

Golf has been a part of my life from before I can even remember. My grandfather, Roland Jones, was the Founder and Director of the Professional Golf Management program at Mississippi State. He got me my first set of cut-down Wilson’s when I was a year old, and I haven’t put a club down since.

Whether it was Saturday mornings with my dad at the Colonial Country Club, or TJGA tournaments all over Memphis, golf was always part of my life. Basketball took precedence to golf in high school, but in college, I really got back into the game. I am currently a 5-handicap and constantly working on shaving off some strokes. I can’t get enough of it.

That’s what we like to hear! Let’s get back into Tight Lies. What is it that sets your content apart from other golf-related publications?

My main goal is to provide content that the avid golfer wants to consume. I think the conversational style with which I write makes the content easy to engage with. I want readers to feel like we are talking over a pint after an evening round.

Another focus of mine is to shine light on golf in the South. Sometimes, I feel it gets overshadowed by the Northeast, the West Coast and Florida. The amount of quality golf that isn’t talked about is crazy to me. On top of that, the golf community in this part of the country is stronger than ever. The golf world saw that first hand at Bellerive. Tons of “mid-southerners” made the short trip to St. Louis for the PGA Championship, and it was one of the most electric environments we have seen in recent memory.

Very true. I made it to Valhalla in 2014 for the PGA, and the environment was incredible. So, since you are so embedded in the golf world, is there anything that is particularly enticing to you at the moment?

One of the most enticing things to me has been Tiger’s comeback and the effect it is having on the game. I was born in the Tiger era, and throughout my entire golf life, I have wanted to emulate everything he does on the course. After a tough decade, he has come back and is competing at the highest level against the new guard. The back and forth between Tiger and pick one – JT, DJ, Rickie, Koepka, Spieth – is the power struggle we needed. And the new side of Tiger has been good to see. He still has the killer instinct but seems to be in a great place as a person as well.

Also, as I mentioned before, the design and development of publicly accessible golf courses across the country and world has really piqued my interest. Whether it is Tom Doak, Core Crenshaw, Gill Hanse or Mike Keiser, their projects and courses are blending into their natural surroundings as if they were always there. If you couple that with the restoration renaissance that has recently taken off, the way we experience golf courses is transforming and changing for the better.

What they can do with courses today is truly unbelievable. So, what is the greatest challenge you have faced thus far as a writer in the golf realm?

The biggest challenge thus far has been having the confidence in the content I produce. There was no creative writing or journalism school for me. So, I had to learn to trust that producing what I’m passionate about will be well-received. The other piece has been patience in the growth of Tight Lies. Like anything you start in life, there will be peaks, valleys and plateaus. There are so many great writers, sites and publications out there to consume today. The support is very gratifying and greatly appreciated.

We hear you there and look forward to growing G&E and Tight Lies together! What has been your most rewarding moment to date?

It would have to be the relationships that have formed since starting Tight Lies. I have talked to and been in touch with people that I would have never been able to connect with prior to starting Tight Lies. Continuing to foster those relationships and growing these connections through golf and business motivates me every day. On top of that, the support from across the spectrum of golf fanatics to non-golfers had been very rewarding.

And what is your ultimate vision for Tight Lies?

The vision is to grow Tight Lies as a site as well as a brand. I want to provide golfers of all interest levels a place to consume the content that means the most to them. I am working on a podcast where I want to highlight people in the golf space that are from this area or working in this area of the country. Travel has always been a passion of mine, so the potential to do that through golf would be the best of both worlds. Needless to say, I am excited to work with you guys at G&E and see what the future holds!

Likewise. Let’s run through some rapid fire questions… 18 holes with anyone, who would it be?

Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods. It has been a dream my entire life.

Favorite club in the bag?

Titleist AP2 6-iron.

Bucket list course?

Augusta because of the exclusivity, but for an accessible course, the Old Course at St. Andrews.