Golf fashion is not an oxymoron anymore
July 17, 2009
It wasn’t so very long ago that anyone using the word “golf” and the word “fashion” in the same sentence was expected to be telling some kind of joke.
There’s still some truth to that statement, as a visit to any Cape Region golf course on a Saturday morning will soon prove.
Nonetheless, at the national level, there’s a strong push for good-looking golfers to look their best in nicely tailored, thoughtfully designed sports wear.
Let’s be blunt. Men don’t follow LPGA Tour pros Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis around the course just to see a pair of beautiful swings. Women don’t flock to the fairways just to watch PGA Tour pros Freddie Couples or Ian Poulter boom their drives. In all four cases, these are some very pleasant folks to look at, and their fashion sense plays a large part in their appeal.
Couples is the oldest of that bunch, and the most conservative in his style. He’s usually seen wearing Ashcroft shirts, which makes sense since he invested heavily in the popular clothing line.
Creamer is famous for her all-pink outfits, which would look hideous on other women but look just fine on her. And Poulter is one of golf’s fashion-forward leaders, unafraid to show off new touches on those hardy perennials of the professional links, polo shirts and gabardine pants.
The New York Times ran a piece this week that was nominally about the upcoming major, the British Open. In fact, the main focus of the article was about how the apparel industry has seized upon using golfers to push their products, using a well-known marketing tactic.
In movies, it’s called product placement. In golf, it’s called the clothes that the golfers are wearing, such as the now-famous black pants/red shirt combination Tiger Woods wears on nearly every Sunday in competition.
Woods is now so identified with that look that in last year’s U.S. Open playoff, many folks raised eyebrows when they saw his playoff competitor, Rocco Mediate, also wearing red and black.
Mediate wasn’t paying homage to Woods. According to media reports at the time, Mediate had simply run out of other clothes to wear for the unexpected Monday finish.
This week’s Times article notes that Nike’s plans for Woods’ attire during this week’s tournament took place almost eighteen months ago.
These things take time to plan for, after all, given that Nike expects the particular styles Woods will wear to be much in demand in the coming weeks.
The company needs time to have their inventory ready and delivered to their stores for the expected rush.
Some of us non-professional golfers do make a bit of an effort to look at least halfway presentable while out on the course.
Several years ago, for example, I decided to wear only black, white, tan, or grey while playing golf.
Not exactly exciting stuff, to be sure, but it beat trying to make plaid go with stripes.
And as someone noted many years ago, paisley goes with nothing.
Big money raised for a good cause
On July 11, eighty golfers and over 200 guests came together at Kings Creek Country Club for a Mid-Summer Golf Scramble.
This year’s edition raised over $25,000 for the benefit of 10-year-old liver transplant patient Caroline Wheeler. Caroline is the daughter of Amy and Gary Wheeler, who is the clubhouse manager for King’s Creek. She underwent successful liver transplant surgery on June 18 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Steve Storrie and Betsi Fakler hosted and organized the event, which was staged not only for Caroline’s sake, but also in honor of Storrie’s father Michael, who passed away from liver cancer. Prior events benefited lupus care, in honor of Jimmy Fakler’s mother.
The Rehoboth Rotary Club is accepting additional donations for Caroline Wheeler’s recovery. Interested donors should contact Betsi Fakler at betsi@shipuse.com.