Golf : Hype or Love?
Let's call it like it is ... golf's a very special game ... born in the old country and making its way here some 300 years ago. It's a game steeped in history and tradition, but it's evolved over time - as all things must and should. Recently however, there's been a boom, and with that growth and excitement we've been hearing a lot about 'hype'. Some people have even asked us to make RADMOR 'more street' more graphic driven, cater to a non-golf audience all so we can sell more shirts. Don't get me wrong, we're in the selling shirt business, but we thought we should share what golf really means to us ... and why we'll never be hype.
I've been playing since I was 11, Bob since he was 13. First with our Dads for fun, then as we got better, in competition in local Junior Golf programs, later in national events and state high school tournaments, then in college. Golf was never about HYPE, or being trendy, or tapping into a flashy movement or culture. 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 sometimes that takes a whole year. It’s a thankless commitment to only yourself, challenging your ego and constantly testing your pride. For those who play the game at a competitive level, it’s less of a choice – golf just grabs you, it owns you. You either get it or you don’t, and if you're like us, you don’t have much say in the matter.
Sure, an evolution is underway, and thats a good thing as golf's a game that's been slow to welcome change. For those who think golf’s current trajectory was born from Tiger’s 1990’s ascendence … you should look back a little further and give credit where its due. Like the Tour 90 balata balls and Pittsburgh Persimmon metalwoods of my youth, there were hundreds if not thousands of forerunners to today's game. Legends like Bobby Jones, Chi-Chi, Hogan, Trevino, Arnie, Nicklaus, Peete, Babe and Annika each shaped and redefined the sport along the way. The game also had architects like Dye and Doak, and Ross, MacKenzie, and Tillinghast, who thru their work continue to inspire the incredible courses and clubs we idolize today.
Sure, 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. Golf doesn't care about Instagram or TikTok … Golf is too busy being true to itself; a metaphor for life.
Every round a fresh start, you do the best you can, managing the game you have, playing the good and the bad, always looking to improve, hoping to find success, measuring the upside of taking risks vs. playing it safe. Golf, like life, is always changing, always evolving, and we're always striving to do a little better.
We've invested almost 40 years of our lives playing this game. Grinding, pounding hundreds of thousands of balls on the range, taping blisters, reading greens, driving to tournaments, digging into bags for yet another provisional, figuring out how to break 90, then 80, then occasionally, 70. Then learning to do it in competition, in college, then professionally, on the best tracks in the world - always from the tips. Golf, like life, is about proving it. First to yourself, then to whoever wants a piece of you. You can’t hide from the game, it knows the truth and the truth always comes out eventually. The game will keep you honest..
Fellow Citizens of the Game, we welcome you. Feel free to leave the hype at home or bring it, just follow your heart, don't hide your love of the game, and we'll be here for you - making clothes that honor our commitment to to the sport, to sustainability, and to you ... allowing for you to perform at your best while looking even better. Golf Green. Wear RADMOR.