The perfect pitch for model golfers
IN Goldfinger, Sean Connery’s James Bond insists that the only fashion faux pas one can make in golf is to dress too well.
This week at the Open, few would have been guilty of breaking that rule; but then most don’t have much say.
Tomorrow’s winner in Turnberry will be on television throughout the globe, more than likely, for five consecutive hours. His face and clothes will appear online and in newspapers, and his winning outfit could surface again a month or a year later on magazine covers. A single shirt worn by a big-name golfer on a Sunday afternoon winning a tournament can raise sales 10%, companies say.
The scripting process begins for most companies with a design meeting about a year and a half before an event. New looks in stripes, patterns and prints are examined, as well as new technology of materials, like fabrics designed to keep moisture away from the athlete’s body. A colour palette is carefully selected and a decision made on how the clothes will work with vests or pullovers.
And it’s no wonder that most of the top golfers have their clothes laid out on the bed like young boys on the day of their First Holy Communion. Elite athletes in most sports wear uniforms, so orchestrating their attire to boost sales is hardly an option.
But in individual games like golf and tennis, the playing fields of major championships are akin to a Parisian catwalk, only much, much better.
So picture the scene in at Nike’s HQ in Beaverton, Oregon around lunchtime yesterday when their marquee golfing icon, Tiger Woods, failed miserably to make the cut. Many had predicted him grabbing the Claret Jug but in the end, all he could really promise us was the colour and design of what he wears.
On Thursday his shirt was navy and striped while yesterday’s was a vivid coral hue. So with him missing only his second halfway cut in 49 majors as a professional, what are we missing? White with a stripe was the plan for today while tomorrow, as with every major Sunday, Nike were to provide him with a new, textured red argyle shirt with black pants.
In a sport that can be cruelly fickle, golf equipment and apparel manufacturers leave no marketing opportunity, in a €6 billion industry, to chance.
What Woods wears each day at every major championship this year has been set out for him by Nike since last summer so that – ideally, of course – retailers would have a new design and colour modelled by the world number one on their shelves this weekend.
Sergio Garcia is yet to take the final step and at last win a major, but if he does do it tomorrow he will undoubtedly wear white pants and a blue shirt with a white piping stripe, according to the plan provided to him by Adidas. The reigning US Open champion, Lucas Glover, will wear a bright yellow Nike shirt with grey trousers.
Of course, no two players should ever arrive at the course in the same outfit. A few years ago at the Masters, there was even consternation on the first tee when Phil Mickelson’s caddie arrived in the same shirt as Charles Howell III.
Lefty, by the way, is one of the few elite golfers without a contract; he dresses himself with the help of a London tailor – a refreshing throwback to pre-globalisation.
Others, of course, won’t wear grey like Glover. England’s Ian Poulter – who launched his own clothing line – struts to the tee box every week sporting garish trousers, eye-watering polo shirts and a trendy goatee more manicured than the greens.
On Thursday he rocked up to Turnberry with custom-designed tartan trousers to ‘complement’ a sleeveless Union Jack cardigan. He signed for 14 over.
And then there’s John Daly. His career, scarred by personal and financial crises, was in need of quick cash when he agreed to a merchandising deal with Loudmouth Golf. He now wears pants so loud, you can hear him coming down the back nine.
The company has 28 different styles of baggy, gaudy trousers, he’s eager to wear every one this year.
Of course, he’s always played golf the way he lives life; shaken and stirred.
