Golf Trend’s Evolution Is On Full Show at U.S. Open

A marine layer and regular drizzle hung within the placid air over Pacific Dunes golf course. Black-on-black rain gear dominated the misty scene with one exception—a pair of inexperienced, black, and white graffiti rain pants made by Malbon.  

“These look good,” Pacific Dunes head golf skilled Jason Ballot says. “It beats all of the blacks and blues I often see.” 

By no means a golf fashionista, it took some persuading to don these billowy, daring rain pants impressed by graffiti artist Futura and produced by Malbon, a golf and way of life style model identified for pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable on the course. Simply ask Augusta Nationwide (extra on that shortly).

I’d by no means worn something like these on the road, not to mention on a course. Slacks and polos have been my go-to. That’s what I used to be instructed was acceptable. That’s what I believed for 20 years. 

Then I discovered myself on the primary tee at one of many prime public golf course within the nation, the place I obtained compliments from the 60-something starter on my “superior pants” and it struck me: the outdated norms of golf attire are fading into oblivion as a brand new wave takes over.

“Golf is just not a sport the place you want a particular uniform,” says Marty Hackel, the previous Trend Director at Golf Digest. “We’re seeing much more firms supplying you with a product that’s sensible and versatile. You’ll be able to put on it on the course and you’ll put on it off the course. That’s the way it ought to be.”

What a liberating thought.

For roughly 70 years, golf did have a uniform. Ailing-fitted trousers and polyester polos for males. Skirts or pants and a shrunken model of a males’s polo for ladies. 

Vibrant colours and funky prints have been avenues to face out. So have been the assorted headwear choices – visors, flat caps, straw hats, fedoras, bucket hats, and, in fact, the usual baseball cap. 

Perhaps you threw in a colourful ball or a black glove. Most caught with white. 

Irrespective of the mix, irrespective of the colours, you knew it while you noticed it on the road—this individual both simply performed golf or was going to play now. 

“I’m not into the uniform factor the place you need to match into this field,” says Stephen Malbon, who co-founded Malbon together with his spouse Erica in 2017. “The very last thing younger folks wish to do is be instructed 8,000 guidelines earlier than they go and do one thing. It’s extra necessary for the expansion of the sport to be comfy to go and play golf.”

That’s the foundation of the fast transformation golf style has undergone over the previous few years. Golf attire is now way of life attire. When you like fishing and golf, there’s one thing you may put on for each. When you like upscale dinners and golf, they have you there too. Wish to work out earlier than or after a spherical? You’ll be able to put on one outfit for each. 

The strains between what you put on on the course and off are blurring. That is by design. 

“I could not bear to put on this costume I needed to placed on to play golf. I needed one thing extra versatile,” says Amy Anderson, co-Founder and CMO of Honors, a ladies’s golf and way of life attire firm. “I used to shove my golf garments at the back of the closet with no different objective in my life after I was achieved taking part in, however I needed to have one thing I may pull out of my closet and play golf in and in addition put on with denims to dinner.”

A few of the adjustments in golf style are extra distinguished—hoodies as a substitute of quarter-zips, joggers as a substitute of slacks, sneakers as a substitute of spikes. Some are extra refined, like cotton as a substitute of polyester, monotone as a substitute of neon, solids as a substitute of prints. 

Some appear destined to be fads, like massive letter hats and large logos. Some may face up to the take a look at of time, particularly well-tailored items which can be interchangeable with a day by day wardrobe.

All is designed to mix golf and style with day by day life. 

Golf is, in spite of everything, merely a bit of who you’re. It’s not the entire thing. The garments you put on on the course ought to be an extension of who you’re off it, and vice versa. They need to perform in each settings.

“The whole lot has been elevated to this multifunctional, multipurpose realm of style,” says Jessica Marksbury, a senior editor at Golf.com, who covers golf style amongst different topics. “That’s what individuals are responding to and appreciating. They’re now not shopping for golf garments simply to play golf. They’re shopping for garments they will play golf in after which go to the health club or dinner. Individuals are extra keen to make a big funding as a result of it is extra transitional.” 

A simple place to watch the change in golf style is on the U.S. Open merchandise tent at Oakmont Nation Membership this week. Lengthy a bastion of traditionalism, the USGA has embraced the brand new period of golf style. The outcomes have been elevated gross sales on the U.S. Open and U.S. Ladies’s Open over the past three years. The identical ought to maintain true at Oakmont, the place competitors tickets are offered out. 

Excessive-end sky blue hoodies from Peter Millar mingle with black and yellow U.S. Open hockey jerseys. A ’47 Model purple, white and blue crewneck sweater with large U.S. Open and Oakmont lettering is offset by a minimalist G/FORE navy t-shirt with Oakmont’s famed church pew bunkers on the again. 

New faculty meets old-fashioned. Showy meets simplicity. There’s one thing for everybody’s way of life. 

“When folks come to buy, they don’t seem to be simply purchasing for golf anymore. They’re purchasing for their on a regular basis life,” says USGA managing director of merchandise and licensing Mary Lopuszynski. “Traditionally, we’re having these excessive common transactions as a result of individuals are shopping for issues they’ll put on to dinner and to golf. It’s not only for golf anymore.”

The identical is true at USGA headquarters in Liberty Nook, N.J. Lopuszynski used to have a separate outfit for work, then she would for the golf course, then she would for her private life. Now her outfits move extra seamlessly together with her way of life. Even USGA CEO Mike Whan wears hoodies to the workplace now. 

“We’ve seen some important adjustments over the previous few years,” Lopuszynski says. “The designers are getting extra subtle and refined. Floral has slowed down. Hoodies got here in. 10 years in the past, we barely offered any hoodies, and now gross sales are by means of the roof. It’s a lot extra informal now, which is why issues are altering.”

Even Augusta Nationwide’s merchandise providing has advanced. Pink hats with AZAELA and orange hats with PIMENTO emblazoned in daring letters have been well-liked purchases this 12 months. Simplistic “Masters Match” hoodies are good for fall days by the hearth. Even the ballyhooed gnomes signify a life-style providing for individuals who like to backyard and golf. 

Some might view these adjustments as trivial. In a sport the place custom reigns supreme and trendy gamers like Justin Thomas have been mocked for sporting joggers and hoodies 5 years in the past, nonetheless, they signify a large paradigm shift.

Ladies’s attire has additionally seen a big improve in consideration. Manufacturers like Honors, A. Putnam and Williams Athletic Membership are main the evolution. 

Easy, flattering silhouettes with earthy colours. Upscale materials emphasizing comfy efficiency. No logos. Minimalism and flexibility. You’d don’t have any downside transitioning their clothes from a course to a boardroom to a child’s soccer sport to a restaurant. 

All three solely produce attire for ladies. This aren’t males’s firms altering the sizing and colours and throwing some ruffles on the sleeves for ladies. That is for ladies by ladies with way of life and golf heart stage. 

“I’ve had ladies say they do not play golf as a result of they cannot discover something to put on,” Anderson says. “We are able to’t have that. That breaks my coronary heart. That’s why we attempt to create one thing that girls can really feel good in and so they really feel assured within the efficiency as nicely.”

Anderson and her co-founders, Huntley Rodes and Jenna Walter, are serving to fill that void at an opportune time.

Based on the Nationwide Golf Basis, the whole variety of feminine golfers rose to a report 7.9 million in 2024. That was the fifth straight 12 months wherein the variety of feminine golfers elevated. Ladies now signify 28% of whole golfers, one other report. 

A technique Honors is making an attempt to face out from the rising competitors is by injecting extra fashionable style traits into its attire. 

“Golf is often two years behind style. I’d like to see these issues catch up,” Anderson says. “There have been parts at Paris style week this 12 months that I am hoping we are able to implement and have prepared for fall and spring 2026.” 

Malbon has been a pioneer in closing the hole between golf, style, popular culture and way of life. They’ve collaborated with Futura, Jimmy Choo, Footjoy, Adidas, New Stability, Prince and even Curb Your Enthusiasm. The outcomes are a brand new and invigorating have a look at golf style, one unencumbered by the shackles of custom. 

“Thank god we’ve folks like Stephen Malbon who wish to push golf style ahead,” Hackel says. “We want manufacturers like Malbon and Greyson and Subject Day Sporting Co. that take a contemporary have a look at golf attire. It does not imply you need to do wild, off-the-wall stuff. Stephen typically goes a bit of too far, however he’s doing it to show some extent.” 

That time isn’t to upset members at Augusta Nationwide by outfitting Jason Day with a grandiose Malbon vest he’s requested to take off, as was the case throughout the 2024 Masters. The purpose is to interrupt down boundaries and supply new avenues for folks to really feel comfy taking part in golf.

“I wish to present younger artistic those who the outdated guard is just not as caught up and yuppie as they could suppose and present the outdated guard that younger artistic folks aren’t as wild or radical as they could suppose,” Malbon says. “The golf course would not care the place you are from or how a lot cash you make or who you voted for. All that issues is: are you able to get the ball within the gap rapidly? That’s all golf cares about. We wish to encourage new folks to take a look at golf and knock out among the preconceived damaging ideas they could have.”

Trend is that avenue and Malbon continues to push that envelope. 

Malbon just lately introduced a brand new collaboration with GAP that includes Jesper Parnevik, one of many extra bombastic trendsetters in golf style historical past. Not like the flipped-up brim, neon colours and wild prints of Parnevik’s previous, nonetheless, the Malbon-Hole collaboration is extra refined, that includes loads of traditional strong colours and a few plaid splashed in across the phrase PAR, which performs off the traditional GAP brand. 

Their collaborations with Futura and Jimmy Choo produced swanky, trendy clothes beforehand overseas to the sport of golf. But they’re being embraced by a brand new demographic of participant vital for the way forward for the sport.

“Youthful individuals are undoubtedly in that extra informal zone,” Marksbury says. “Malbon is a good instance. A few of their stuff is tremendous excessive style, tremendous innovative. You’d by no means equate that with golf, even 5 or 10 years in the past. However manufacturers like Malbon embracing that may be a nice growth for the sport.”

Golf and style have at all times been intertwined. Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer have been simplistically stylish. Parnevik and John Daly have been grandiose threat takers. Tiger Woods was pure energy. 

By means of their eras, nonetheless, golf attire scarcely advanced. Totally different colours, completely different prints, completely different materials, completely different equipment. Mock collars and parachute pants however, little in regards to the golf uniform matured.

Till now.

“There’s at all times been style in golf,” Hackel says. “When folks do issues which can be noteworthy, we speak about them. Once they do issues out of the norm, we settle for it. The businesses which have massive investments in golf have a accountability to maintain it contemporary and to maintain it progressive. It’s nice seeing lots of them doing that now.”