What you wear to watch golf versus what you wear to play golf have two very different functions—and that becomes glaringly obvious during the Masters.
The spotlight doesn’t shine brighter on our sport more than it does during the second week in April, and these last few years have really elevated the overall experience of Master Weeks as it has now become full blown cultural and social moment.
Golf gets the fashion week treatment, where instead of runways, the fairways are the main attraction and across town there’s a host of parties and hangout happenings that give you the biggest FOMO.
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For my fellas, it’s best to go ahead and pack up the spikes and large-lettered hats momentarily and embrace something more sophisticated like a linen button down paired with a nice pair of loafers. Ladies, dust off your Sunday’s best and lean hard into the pastel hues of spring and a tasteful little kitten heel. This isn’t just any old golf tournament people, it’s the golf tournament!
While Friday’s second round drama was amping up, across the street, I was engaging in a very healthy conversation at the Wheels Up Clubhouse titled ‘How Fashion, Media, and Culture are Re-shaping Golf’, moderated by Samantha Berry, the Global Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief of Glamour Magazine.
Joined by powerhouses like Erica Malbon and Tanya Taylor, two creative minds behind their popular namesake fashion brands—this all-women panel dove deep into the economic impact of style on sports, and how golf is experiencing a boom because of its fashion-forward efforts.
From left to right: Meagan Morrison, Erica Malbon, Dana Myeroff Griffin, Tanya Taylor, Addie Parker, and Samantha Barry. Photo courtesy of Wheels Up.
But we were also joined by fashion illustrator Meagan Morrison and Dana Myeroff Griffin, partner to PGA TOUR player Ben Griffin, who were each able to add their own perspective as women who are surrounded by golf in a much different sense. Because just like style, our experineces with the game are deeply personal. There isn’t a one-cut mold for what the modern day golfer looks like, and our conversation was centered around exactly that.
We touched on the future of the game being more personality-driven, with style being the easiest mode of how that has and will continue to manifest.
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When Barry asked me what I think golf’s future looks like I said, “This game, its future, is more women, more kids, more more people of color. I think golf is golf is truly undergoing a total renaissance and a revolution. And as silly as it sounds, it starts with style. Just because I think style is so important to all of us, and it looks differently for each of us, and that level of personalization is, I think, what makes our game so special.”
Golf and its most rooted-in traditions are evolving with style at the epicenter, and that should be celebrated.