About

Tom is one of the most widely traveled golf writers in the world, with innumerable published articles and photographs to his credit, as well as experience in promoting various golf-industry products and personnel, most recently as Saigon bureau chief for Mandarin Media, a media relations firm in Southeast Asia and the United States.

Harack’s golf-writing career was launched with a feature about Scotland’s “holy land of golf” in the travel section of The New York Times. His work has subsequently appeared in all the major golf print media – including Golf Digest, GOLF Magazine, T&L Golf, and LINKS – and dozens of consumer publications, among them Forbes Life, Men’s Journal, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and Playboy.

Golf-destination assignments have taken him to Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Thailand, and countless stops in the continental U.S. Harack’s photographs often accompany his articles and those of other writers.

Harack is also co-founder of The Critical Faculty, a media/marketing and consulting firm specializing in the golf, resort, and travel industries.

In addition to his editorial work, Harack has represented new and existing golf courses, golf-course architects, and golf instructors, and has written yardage guides, press releases, and other collateral literature. His corporate clients include such publishing and media organizations as McGraw-Hill, Straight Arrow, Cahners, Gralla, Times Mirror, National Geographic, Agence France-Press, Knight Ridder, East/West, Bloomberg Business News, RHI Entertainment, Travel Media Corp. and CMP.

Writing has been a constant in Harack’s life, but prior to specializing in golf, he wrote extensively about architecture, engineering, and construction. His work appeared in such prominent industry magazines as Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Corporate Design, Engineering News-Record, and Building Design & Construction, where he once served as associate editor.

Along the way, Harack has also shown a willingness to take on topics difficult to characterize, for example, how to walk over a bed of hot coals (The Village Voice).

Harack holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Cornell University and a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. A native Chicagoan, when not traveling he splits his time between Old Chatham, New York, and New York City, where his wife, Mercedes, teaches bi-lingual special education in the Bronx.

A survivor of the New York City Marathon, where he shattered the five-hour mark, Harack was once a ranked A squash player in the city. Now relegated to gimp tennis, he still enjoys cycling, hiking, yoga, and Pilates, and walking 18 holes.