You've hit on a subject that has vexed many serious golf writers--and by serious I mean those who take their craft seriously, and not themselves. Why, we can even be funny sometimes about golf.
I recall many discussions with Brad Klein and others about this matter of why golf publications often don't aim higher. The major magazines sometimes tackle controversial subjects; see Marcia Chambers' pieces in Golf Digest on matters surrounding the Casey Martin issue, discrimination in golf; see Golf Journal's interesting pieces on all, or most, things golf.
I've written for most of the major magazines during the last 20 years and am confident they're all looking for good writers and engaging subjects--not that they're looking hard enough or doing these stories often enough. I've heard from magazine editors who have said that pieces can be too thoughtful for their readers. Maybe that's so, but I think that's acceding to the lowest common denominator. I think there's plenty of room for thoughtful pieces in magazines and newspapers; I write a twice-weekly column for the Globe and Mail, our national paper in Canada, and have for 21 years. It's a writer's paper and I like to think the readers are serious readers. I believe these same people are everywhere, but we need a journal of the game--a sort of New Yorker of golf. Brad and I have spoken frequently about this, and we've done the same with other writers, most notably at a long, languid dinner in St. Andrews 18 months ago. Of course the issue of financial support always comes up, and then we go our separate ways. But I'm confident readers would indeed like no-holds barred reviews of courses; thankfully, I can do this in the newspaper. Courses should be reviewed using the same critical standards as are applied to restaurants and films. I think readers would also enjoy long magazine pieces on tournaments and players who aren't tour pros--the Walker Cup, Curtis Cup, U.S. Amateur. Some readers of GCA might recall Calvin Trillin's U.S. Journal pieces in The New Yorker, where he took some small slice of life and amplified it into a delightful and informative essay. We need more of this kind of piece in golf.
Readers should take heart. There's plenty of excellent and thoughtful golf writing out there. You won't always find it in golf magazines, sure. But just look around and you'll find it. Often non-golf magazines carry the longer pieces.
Golf has a literature as or more sophisticated than that you'll find in baseball, boxing and fishing. If you'll insist on getting more than instruction from magazines, well, you just might get what you want. Or what you need.