Meet PlayBetter Expert Marc "Shef" Sheforgen
This is the story of one of golf’s most relatable technology writers — and there's nothing typical about it.
A Career Storyteller with a Passion for Golf
The summer after graduating high school in Milwaukee, Marc Sheforgen got on his bicycle and started riding.
Not around the block. Not across the state. Around the entire perimeter of the United States. More than 10,000 miles. Thirty-one states. Eight and a half months.
Why? Adventure. Stories. To see what was out there.
He found plenty.
College came next and a journalism degree from the University of Kansas. But Marc had carried a specific dream since he was a teenager sneaking into Chicago blues clubs and wearing out his record collection while his friends were into something else entirely. He wanted to write liner notes for classic blues albums. Not a typical career goal. Completely Marc.
His first job out of school was as a newspaper reporter in Salina, Kansas. A few months in, he heard about a local record company, went to check it out, and found himself standing in a converted church that housed one of the most acoustically stunning recording studios in the country. The owner looked up. Marc blurted out the name of the obscure blues legend being recorded. The owner’s eyebrow went up. A friendship formed. Then a job offer. Then a career.
Marc spent more than 20 years at Acoustic Sounds, rising to Chief Operating Officer of what became a sprawling vinyl empire with two record labels, a recording studio, a pressing plant, a concert series, a worldwide direct-to-consumer operation, and a reputation among audiophiles as the gold standard for recorded music.
He helped build Quality Record Pressings from scratch. He worked with the estates of Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Miles Davis, and dozens of others. He helped produce records that people across the world consider the finest-sounding vinyl ever pressed.
The liner note dream came true, too.
But the thing about Marc is that as his passions evolve, he continues to chase them. Golf had been pulling at him. Not as a competitive player, but as someone genuinely hooked on the game, the culture, the technology, all of it. When the moment came to take another leap, he did what he always does.
He left Acoustic Sounds and launched his freelance golf writing career, building it into a full-time business faster than most people thought possible. At PlayBetter, he brings something pure gear experts can’t offer: He’s one of you. He’s not playing the kind of golf that would make you feel inadequate. He’s grinding through the same frustrations, chasing the same improvements, and writing about the technology he tests with the honesty of someone who actually has skin in the game.
When Marc tells you something is worth your money, it’s because he genuinely believes it.
That’s just who he is.