OTL Texas The Spring Issue 2023

From the Publisher Origin Story of OTL and its meaning

Recently, I have received many questions as to the meaning of OTL. Since I have always known its meaning and origin, I take for granted that everyone else does.

Back in a small office in late 2001, my best friend and then business partner and I were talking about starting a magazine together. We began to hammer out the details of what our magazine would look like. At that time, we already had a local weekly newspaper in Austin and were doing quite well.

Our newspaper had full color on the front page (a big deal back then) and if you paid for full color on the front page, the back page would also be in color without additional costs. So, we thought about what we could do with the color back page. For the first few years, we ran these full-page recipes for our readers to try. They gained popularity as readers said they would cut them out and use them. Eventually, we thought about how to better utilize this space.

We enjoyed playing golf and played once or twice per week or whenever there was a chance to get out. It was a way to escape out of the small “executive suites” office, clear our heads, and think of new ideas. One evening after a round of golf, we thought, what if we could play a golf course, take a few pictures, and write about it? We could run a few pictures and tell people about how cool of a course it was. All in color on the back page of the newspaper. That was our first lightbulb moment.

So, off we went, ready to shine this light. Some of the best places came to mind. We called the folks at Barton Creek Country Club, Horseshoe Bay Resort, and The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio. We told them we published a local newspaper and wanted to feature them. They said sure, to our delight, come on out and be our guests.

We played a few courses and published the newspaper with its stunning color back page course review. I wouldn’t be so bold as to say it was groundbreaking, but it was certainly a hit with readers and the courses.

This is where some of the magic was made. We had a client that owned an art gallery, Joyce Hunt, who suggested framing the back page and presenting it to the course/ resort so they could proudly display it in their pro shop or throughout the club.

Great idea. That’s what we did, and it was an even bigger deal. I am very proud to say that to this day, some clubs still have our first framed features displayed on their walls.

Okay, so back to the small office. We realized, what if instead of having a one-page feature on a course on the back of a weekly newspaper, we dedicate an entire magazine to golf?

We asked ourselves, what would we want to see in a golf magazine? Well, it would have to include the best golf courses. It would also have to include more exciting things than just golf. It would have great restaurants, travel destinations, wine advice, financial advice, interesting interviews…It would detail the things we loved about life and get the most out of it. Eureka!

We have never wavered from that original idea. What you see in this magazine today is what we talked about 21 years ago in that small room having a drink.

We said, let’s do it. Yeah, but we need a name first. I wanted to name it Fairways and Greens, but to my surprise, that name was already in use by a clothing company.

Great name by the way. Having both dabbled in writing screenplays, we said, let’s just use a working title for now until we think of the name we want.

The working title was On The Links. And it stuck.

I will explain later why we opted for OTL in 2017. And no, we were not trying to be like KFC.

Hope springs eternal. Welcome to the Spring 2023 issue of OTL. Enjoy.