Meet our newest author, golfer, and attorney Aaron Brogan. His book is made for everyone who desires to master golf in the modern world. Get to know a little bit more about where the inspiration came from to release such an insightful book and discover tips and tricks on golfing by purchasing your copy of Let The Big Dog Eat. 

Introduce Yourself

Hi followers! I’m Aaron Brogan, author of Let the Big Dog Eat. I try to maintain a lifestyle of contradiction so that I’ll always defy characterization. I’m a tattooed attorney, a New York Mainer, and a Bushwick golfer. If there’s one thing I tried to do with this book it’s buck convention — where I think the golf books I grew up with were often a little stuffy and technical, Let the Big Dog Eat is fun and breezy. The whole point of this book is to be an extension of the way I grew up playing casually with my friends, and the way I see a lot of young people playing these days. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we still want to play better if we can, and this book will help a lot of people do that. 

Describe your book in three words. 

No hungry dogs.

What is your favorite thing about playing golf? 

A lot of people will say the best thing about golf is a perfectly struck 5-iron or the sound of a golf ball rolling in a cup, but for me, it was never anything about playing the game itself exactly. I just love being outside, taking long walks, smelling the air, and hanging out with my friends. I love the competition, too, mind you. But if I couldn’t play a competitive round again I’d still go walk the course at twilight. I remember one time I was out at Penmar which is this tiny municipal course in Venice, and the fires that year were bad and had the air real smokey, so when the sun started to set we got these really vibrant oranges and magentas coming out from over the water and just a little breeze. I thought that was perfect. 

What are you currently watching or reading?

A few things. I’m really into Matt Levine’s newsletter Money Stuff. I think the way I wrote Let the Big Dog Eat as an entree to the golf world for anyone who’s interested, his writing does the same for people from the fringes of finance. As a lawyer dealing with financial products, this is really thrilling stuff to me, and he’s such a sharp writer I’d recommend it to anyone. I’ve been into the Bryan Bros YouTube channel too, lately. They have so much fun playing golf you almost don’t notice how damn good they are. I think we’re all really lucky to be alive at a time where you can see players that great in such an intimate environment, so watching them is really cool. Lastly, my girl and I have been watching Gilmore Girls on weeknights. I grew up in New England and it kinda reminds me of home. Love it.

Golfer and Attorney, some similarities in your hobbies/work? 

Golf and law are similar in some crucial ways. There are written rules and unwritten rules, and you have to follow both. A big reason I wrote Let the Big Dog Eat was because I was bringing my friends out and they didn’t know how to act—they always asked me questions about this and that, so finally I decided “ok, I’m just going to write all this down and give it to them.” So I hope they read it and stop stepping in my line! 

You talk a lot in the book about growing up in Maine, how did that affect the book?

Listen, I think of this book as really being of two places, Maine, where I grew up, and New York City, where I live now. The book is full of stories from my childhood and a lot of those include people and places that aren’t around anymore. I find that really resonates with people from Maine, and everyone who’s come up and told me that has been a really unexpected dividend from writing this. 

Maine is kind of a weird place to grow up playing golf because it’s very cold all winter, it snows a ton, and the sun goes down at 4pm. So really, ⅓ of the year you lose just to the environment. That means, compared to places like the south or California, it’s relatively rare for Maine to produce highly competitive national golfers. It’s just not as easy to be good in a place where you can’t play a lot of the year. 

At the same time, the intrusion of the elements and the hard-scrabble nature of life where I’m from is a lot closer to what golf came from than the patrician country club culture that evolved in the rest of North America. I think that culture of elitism turned a lot of people off in the twentieth century, and the resurgence of golf in the twenty-first is due in no small part to the way public clubs and people like YouTube golfers, or even some PGA pros like Kevin Kisner or Max Homa, have returned the game to the people. And I just think I got a head start growing up like I did. The way we play, it’s about having fun. This book is for everyone, so I hope people pick it up and enjoy it.