Is Today's Golf About Hype or Love?

Let's call it like it is ... golf's a very special game ... It was born in the old country and made its way here some 300 years ago. The game is steeped in history and tradition, but it's evolved over time - as all things must. Recently however, there's been a boom. And with that growth and excitement, we've been hearing a lot about 'hype' and have even been asked to make RADMOR 'more street' so we can sell more shirts. With all that in mind, we thought we'd share what golf really means to us ...

For me, I've been playing since I was 11. First with my Dad for fun, then as I got better, in competition in the local Desert Junior Golf program in Southern California and later AJGA Tour. Golf was never about HYPE, or being trendy, or tapping into a movement or culture. Golf wasn't that cool. Golf is and always has been about LOVE, plain and simple.

Love of the game, love of a challenge, love of friendships and a shared, mutual obsession with the sport. Golf is about living and striving to get just one or two shots better a round – and that takes a whole year sometimes. It’s a thankless commitment to yourself, and a delicate dance with your ego and your sense of pride. For those who truly play the game, it’s not a choice – golf grabs you, it owns you. You either get it or you don’t, and you certainly don’t have much say in the matter.

Sure, an evolution is underway, and thats always a good thing, but enough with the hype train. For those who think golf’s a cool antihero play these days … or something that was born from Tiger’s epic 90’s ascendence … you need to look back a little further and give credit where its due. The game we all love had thousands of pros and amateurs with names like Jones, Hogan, Arnie, Babe and Annika who each shaped and redefined the sport along the way. It has architects like Dye and Doak, and Ross, MacKenzie and Tillinghast, who thru their work still inspire the incredible courses and clubs we love to enjoy.

Like the Tour 90 balata balls, single strap Jones bags, and Pittsburgh Persimmon metalwoods of my youth, there were hundreds if not thousands of forerunners to today's version of hype golf. Tiger, like Jack, and Bobby Jones before him, and Ouimet before everyone - were generational shifts - accelerants in the game. But long before Tiger, and after all the hype starts to patina, there will remain 60+ million fans of the game who love it for how it makes them feel when they play it - not how cool it makes them seem. It’s that simple.

Golf doesn't care about Instagram or TikTok, or getting more followers, or Nike adding spikes to your favorite sneaker (although we do love a pair of Nike sneakers) … Golf is too busy being a metaphor for real life. Every round a fresh start, you do the best you can, managing the game you have, play the good and the bad, always looking to improve, hoping to find success, measuring the upside of taking risks vs. playing it safe, always changing, always evolving, always striving to do better.

For us, golf is an obsession. We've invested almost 40 years of our lives on the tee, grinding, pounding balls, taping blisters, reading greens, driving to tournaments, digging into bags for yet another provisional, figuring out how to break 90, then 80, then 70. Then learning to do it in competition, in college, then professionally, on the best tracks in the world - yes, always from the tips. Golf is about proving it. First to yourself, then to whoever wants a piece of you. You can’t lie to yourself. The game knows the truth and the truth always comes out. Golf always knows.

Citizens of the Game, we welcome you. Feel free to leave the hype at home, follow your heart, share your love of the game, and we'll be here for you - making clothes that honor our commitment to sustainability, allow you to perform at your best while looking even better. Here's to the next 40 years ...

(PS - Crushing a few beers along the way is always welcome.)