Born and raised the youngest of six kids in the Midwest, Jack Grandcolas went to college at The University of Texas to play golf. There he met Lauren Catuzzi. Jack graduated and embarked on a successful marketing and advertising career in San Francisco. In 1991, he married Lauren and moved to Marin county to start a family. Lauren, three months pregnant with their first child, was killed when they stopped United Flight 93 from being used by terrorists to torpedo the United States Capital. Jack has remarried and currently does pro bono work for charities and serves on a few boards.

Alan Shipnuck wrote his first Sports Illustrated cover story as a twenty-year-old intern, in 1994. Over the ensuing quarter-century he typed covers on subjects ranging from Tiger Woods to Brett Favre to Michael Phelps to Peyton Manning to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to Phil Mickelson. Shipnuck is now a partner and the executive editor at the Fire Pit Collective, a new media company. He recently won his 12th first-place award in the annual writing contest of the Golf Writers Association of America, breaking the all-time record of World Golf Hall of Fame member Dan Jenkins. Shipnuck is the author of eight books, including national best-sellers Bud, Sweat & Tees and The Swinger (with Michael Bamberger) and the most anticipated and impactful sports book of recent years, Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar. He lives in Carmel, California.