Greg Monteforte, founder of Golf-Threads.com and @golfthreadsblog joins us to share his view on the evolution of golf style, the future of men’s on-course fashion and discuss our favourte style elements, trends and pet peeves.
Greg also shares his journey as a golf fashion writer, why he built Golf Threads without monetizing via paid-for sponsorship posts and why staying genuine is the key for aspiring golf fashion creators.
Whether you’re a golfer curious about what to wear, a fashion enthusiast, or a content creator looking for inspiration, this episode is packed with insights on where golf fashion has been, where it’s heading and how to write about it.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
01:52 How J.Lindeberg ignited Greg’s style-sense
05:37 Starting Golf-Threads.com
07:48 A surprising community
09:19 Golf fashion has exploded and changed
11:36 What is the future of men’s golf fashion?
17:03 Hats!
18:22 Streetwear & patterns
19:43 How khaki has changed
21:37 Is Nike safe & boring?
24:00 The right (not white) belt
31:19 Making monochrome work
36:28 Course wear in the office
38:00 Don’t wear dark shoes with light pants
39:21 Tunnel walks & TGL’s missed opportunity
40:51 Advice for golf bloggers getting started
44:41 Debating why not and where to monetize
#golffashion #golfstyle #golfoutfits #golfapparel #golfclothing #golfstreetwear #golfthreads #golftrends #golfwardrobe #golffashionblogger #golfstyleblogger #golffashioninfluencer #golfstyleinspiration #golfstylecommunity #golfcreator #golfcontent #golfcontentcreator #mensgolffashion #golfstyleguide
Well, fashion has exploded. What’s next? What do you see coming? Deconstructed argyles and they are colorful. Where I want to get to is a discussion on white belt. People just are a lot more tuned into golf fashion. They understand the nuances. I want to know who’s wearing a button-down cardigan. You can’t go wrong in all black. Never. Your site has become my outlet for that. They don’t match at all. They don’t go together. What is your advice for finding an audience and making it live online? Do you obsess about golf style? Do you care as much about how you look on a golf course as how you play? And have you ever considered writing about golf fashion online and what that world is like? Welcome to the FLGolf Podcast. I’m your host, Mark Bosch, and I want to learn from and be inspired by others who have lives in golf. And our guest today is Greg Montaport, who’s the founder of Golf Threads, Golf Style, one thread at a time, online, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram. Greg, welcome to the pod. Thanks. Thanks for having me, Mark. Awesome. So, Greg, I’ve always been obsessed with athletic aesthetics of all kinds. Some people have an eye to things, some people don’t. But, you know, when I started playing baseball, I was always interested in stirrups, wristbands, leather belts versus elastic belts. What are traditional elements of a uniform? What are the new things? How can I integrate them? You know, how can I find my own sort of flare on a baseball field when you otherwise have to be very uniform? And most other sports are like that. Certainly team sports. Golf is totally different. What I love about golf and especially now is that you can do so many things. You can be loud, you can be tasteful, you can find brands or fashion items that are a combination of both. And you can play with so many different elements of the golf bag, of the ball, of your club head covers, of what’s on your body. And that obsession’s taking me back for as long as I’ve started playing golf. How did yours begin? Yeah, I think for me like it just goes back to like my grandfather kind of introducing me to the game when I was a kid. And I mean I I wouldn’t say like he was super into golf fashion or anything like that, but I mean he definitely you thought that part of the way that you respect the game is to dress appropriately and dress properly for the game as well. So, I think as I got more into golf and kind of became an adult, I was looking for something that was, you know, modern for me, but also kind of tied back to like the heritage of the game. You know, going back to I’m gonna say the early 2000s here. Like brand that really spoke to me was Jay Lundberg specifically like I love the way that Yester Parnovic was dressing and then Camila Jenis when he came out they’re all wearing JL back then. And I really liked how Jay Lindberg kind of brought that like kind of modern kind of rock and roll attitude to the course. At the same time, they were really sticking with a lot of the traditions of the game and traditional patterns. Like there was a lot of argyles and there were plaids, but they were doing it in like a really new and creative and modern way. They were kind of deconstructed argyles and they were colorful. Like I remember Aaron Battle wearing pink plaids and yeah, Jasper having purple plaid pants and things like that. I just like this is then I think they were kind of the first ones to kind of do like the big logo button uh belt buckles back in the day and the wide belt the bridge logo logo across the back was unmistakable and that when I saw Jay Lindberg that’s what made me notice Jay Lindberg for the first time and I was like wow there’s not really a brand out there that is doing something so in-your-face but at the same time it was kind of understated. It was like look just here’s another color swatch. Yeah. And for me it looks fantastic. old and it was brash like you were saying, but it still kind of picked up those traditions of the game. It was just kind of doing it in a new and creative and modern way. And I think you’re you’re talking about wristbands. I still remember like Yesper’s like wristband arrow where he was wearing like the Jay Linderberg wristbands on the course and it just like wherever he could add like a little bit of color and a little bit of flare like he did it. And like it was always that little cycling for Yes. There was that little cycling cap that was just flipped up like that. And then eventually they figured out that they could put a logo on that and they did. Yeah. So yeah, I that’s really the brand that kind of like ignited my passion into golf fashion and I think it was at a time when no one was really talking about golf fashion. There were a couple blogs out there. There was Khaki Crusader, which I think may have been like the very first golf fashion blog. I would just wake up every day. What’s the latest post on like khaki crusader and that I do that with golf threads. Right now is open championship week. I don’t really care who’s in the field. I want to know who’s wearing a button-down cardigan and if anyone’s really kind of going wild with pink and what’s the rain gear like, who’s doing short sleeve rain pullovers and and who’s wearing a mock turtleneck. So your site has become my outlet for that. Um, and there are very few of them out there, which is why I’m just so pleased to be able to have you as a guest here. So, tell me about the Golf Threads. That’s golf-threads.com. Tell me about that journey, how this finally bubbled up to the surface and became an outlet for you. Yeah, I mean, like, I’ve I’ve always kind of had an issue and interest in fashion. Uh, I mean, I remember, you know, getting Golf Digest magazine and like I wouldn’t read any of the articles about like, you know, the latest swing tips or, you know, the upcoming major things like that. I would just go to Marty Hackle’s page, right? And Marty’s basically like the godfather of of golf fashion and golf fashion coverage. So, I just love the kind of products that he was always picking out and how he was talking about golf fashion and how he was kind of really breaking down like the nuances of it and what different tour players were wearing and why certain looks, you know, worked and why certain looks didn’t work and how things could be improved or tweaked. And I mean, a lot of it was my wife was just like, “Hey, like why don’t you just like start a blog?” Like this was kind of before Instagram and Twitter was around, but like social media was kind of just getting started. And I’ve always enjoyed writing as well. My day job is in marketing. So I’ve always enjoyed just kind of better understanding how brands are positioning themselves to different segments of the market. Yeah, for me it was just like a creative outlet and a creative passion. Seemed to seem to pick up a following along the way. And I think what I liked about social media back then as well was this like every it was everyone was into kind of the social aspect of it and making connections and you know talking with like-minded people about their passions. So you know for me I it’s just like that’s how I wanted to spend my free time was talking about golf. I guess you know some people watch game we’re watching Game of Thrones or whatever and just like no at night like I want to sit down or I want to jump on Twitter and you know talk to people about golf fashion or I want to write an article about the latest FootJoys or you know this you know new brand that’s just emerged and and things like that. So uh I think that that’s kind of where it all started. So what has surprised you about the audience like the evolution of your audience the people that you communicate with? I think people just are a lot more tuned into golf fashion. They understand the nuances now as well. I remember just kind of starting out and felt it was a little bit of like a one-way communication of me just putting information out there and people liked it and they absorbed it and we had discussions about it. But I think what I noticed like a couple years in was people are actually starting to come to me with, hey, like I like what this player is wearing this week. And you know, I think one of our big posts around the majors is like uh we do the fashion dimes and crimes for my favorite the the different rounds. And it was so awesome where people would just like DM me and be like, “Hey, you got to get this guy in is like in the crime section.” and just seeing like kind of readers and followers be a part of what we were doing uh was really cool and it’s it’s even to the day and I mean it’s one of the things that you know keeps us going with golf threads you know 12 years in it’s like wow like just that you know uh I started as like a guy with a laptop on a dining room table right and it’s incredibly cool that I can have conversations with people around the world, you know, like you know, yourself and talk about a similar passion that we have. And no, I would just say probably since co as well, golf fashion has exploded since co and a lot of that probably has to do with golf exploding as well, but there’s just so many different ways to dress and to express your personal style on the course these days. So, it’s changed a lot and that I think it was very much driven by like what tour players were wearing, right? Everybody wanted power player look. And I think now like you’re just seeing influencers getting involved in golf and coming from a lot of different cultures whether it’s skateboarding or basketball or hiphop and you know all of those cultures coming together and everyone kind of bringing their own point of view to golf fashion right now. And it’s just in such a really cool place and and that is making its way into what we see in the professional tours. So it’s no longer this top down from brand to player to consumer. It is now consumer/influencer to brands that they create to pros. Even you know a Nike or an Adidas. They are now finding hey streetear or something kooky going on in Asia or Australia like let’s incorporate just a line of this and maybe there’s a golfer that wants to wear this line. You know coming from the bottom up and changing golf style. kind of anything goes right now. And like a lot of like the conventional rules of fashion and men’s fashion are gone. Like it used to be like no, you can’t wear a pattern with a pattern, right? No. Like watch NBA players walk in in their tunnel sets and it’s like they got a pattern shirt and a patterned pair of shorts, right? They don’t match at all. They don’t go together, right? And it’s like you would never tell anybody to wear a pattern with a pattern, right? But yeah, where are we right now? And this explosion of varied types of golf fashion, what it’s doing is that it’s making golf more accessible. It’s breaking down the barriers to entry for someone who who dresses and lives a certain way, but sees golf now look more like them. Right? I can do this. I can walk into a golf course with a baggie shirt that’s not tucked in, maybe not even a polo, right? How much farther can this go? Like what’s next? This is what we’re seeing now, but what do you see coming as the next evolution in golf fashion? You know, golf fashion is always going to follow like what’s going on in men’s fashion. Um I think there used to be a joke that like golf fashion was always 10 years behind men’s. Yes. Uh it’s still a little bit behind. you know, maybe we’ve cut that in half or, you know, it’s maybe a few years behind what’s going on in men’s fashion. So, I almost feel like, you know, Golf Fest is kind of having its Supreme moment right now, right, with limited edition drops and like a lot of the street wear influence right now. So what you’re seeing now and what you’re going to see in the coming years in men’s fashion, I think a lot of that is what’s going to drive golf fashion for you know the next 5 to 10 years. I remember I was on a panel at the PGA show before co or 2019 and I was part of the fashion show at the PGA show and one of the questions was like what’s going to come into golf fashion in the next five years and I think people on the panel like oh like it’s very athletic. we’re gonna continue to see very kind of athleisure type of gear and things like that. And I was like, we’re gonna see pleats back on the golf course. And there was sort of this uneasy laughter in in the audience. And I was like, no, like I’m serious. Like, you have to happen what’s happening in men’s fashion right now. You open GQ and you’re seeing single pleat pants. You’re seeing wider leg trousers right now. the slim fit era is done in men’s fashion. Uh it may still be here in golf fashion, but if you’re looking at like what’s five, six years away, that’s it. And I think within two years, like Adam Scott was rolling out in in pleat and uh you know, we have Keith Mitchell wearing single pleated pants right now and Jason Dave out there with pleated trousers as well. So um just you know, look at where men’s fashion is now. Golf fashion will be there and we’ll catch up. Let’s talk about because you loved them when you saw them, right? Why is that? It’s always been said that like a single pleat trouser is the most flattering type of trouser because it just groom in in the hips and the thighs. And I think what we’re seeing now is more of like that carrot shape with the with pleated trousers. So there is still like a little bit of taper, you know, below the knee. Although I think if you’re looking at what’s happening in a men’s fashion now, you might start to see that that taper moving away and it’s going to be more of a straight leg and a wider leg. Uh when we talk about talking about Jason Day reminds me that we’re also seeing a change in materials overall, right? We reached peak athleisure, peak flexible material, and now we’re getting back into weaves, cotton fabric. What’s this trend? Yeah, it definitely headed in that direction. I mean, look, growing up playing junior golf in Virginia, like 95 degrees, 90% humidity. Like, I like there wasn’t performance fabrics when I was playing junior golf. Like, it was it was cotton. And like I would have killed to have like uh some some performance networks back then. Uh but I mean especially living here in California where I am like you know at least three three seasons of the year. Yeah. You can wear you know natural fabrics and you can wear cotton things like that. I mean, I think there are definitely environmental benefits to natural fabrics where, you know, are not having environmental issues with creating, manufacturing polyester, although I think a lot of brands are doing a good job with recycling polyester these days. I just, you know, I I also think that after a while of wearing a performance fabric and, you know, you know, polyester type of fabric, like your body starts to want to wear something more natural as well. And like even with you know some of the cotton that we’re seeing today and the weaves that we’re seeing today there is stretch and there is flexibility. So where yeah it might be 98 95% cotton but you know there’s some elastain worked into it or some spandex worked into it. So you do still keep kind of that uh flexibility and mobility with it. But I mean for me one thing that I really like right now is like the the sweater polos or or the knit polos. And yeah, seen Billy Horchel uh where he was injured, you know, wearing a lot of those this spring. I mean, I I just think it’s like a really kind of sophisticated look. Yeah. The course and one that, you know, kind of transitions pretty well off the course as well. And I I love the button-down cardigan as well. That’s such a It’s such a timeless look. And I like that, you know, brands like a Grayson, you know, does some some great cardigans. We see Justin Thomas wearing them. Um, but kind of putting, you know, doing them with an edge, too, with, you know, like, you know, a camo pattern or, you know, something a little bit edgy like that, right? So, it’s like, yeah, it’s not your grandfather’s, you know, cardigan. I think we we’ve seen Jason Day in some cardigans recently, and Bond’s doing some some pretty cool looks with those as well. What else has an edge that you see? Uh, like dual tone hats. So, just looking at what you’re wearing right now, um, you know, kind of a that’s a very 90s, early 2000s look coming back, right? And, uh, I think I know that’s the first time on tour just this year. Yes. Uh, just see a couple guys wearing it. I think we’re going to see more of those um, next year as they’re starting to gain some traction with some of the players on tour this year. I know. Yes. I I have loved seeing the rope hat come back. Uh and rope hat also in a modern sense like it’s not you know corduroy and thick fabric. It’s also you know the the typical athletic fabric but you know maybe in a high crown with a little rope and the ropes are now multicolored. Like it’s such a nice throwback that has now been modernized but you can also get the throwback versions as well. It’s fun to see these things come back around. Yeah. No. Uh like Jones has some really good uh rope hats. Um, so people are looking for some with some uh performance fabric as well. So, as you were saying, just a really modern take on it, not necessarily like the heavy corduroy. I had some of those heavy corduroy ones back uh in the 90s, I think. So, uh yeah, a little bit uh a little bit friendlier in the in the warm weather for sure. So, what else has that edge that’s coming that’s new? I mean, we’re definitely like in the street wear uh moment right now. I think a lot of the patterns that we’re seeing are kind of big and they’re bold. And again, like that’s this is all all patterns that we kind of saw back in like the late 80s uh that are kind of coming back, right? We’ve seen Malbon, we’ve seen Grayson kind of do some of these patterns that are really artistic and they almost look like landscapes, right? And I think Jay Lindberg may have done one for the Masters this year as well, right? I I think we’re going to see some kind of edgy things in outerwear uh as well with kind of different fabrics. And I think the big thing right now with layers is like texture as well. So like we’re seeing a lot of quilting uh layering pieces. Uh even if it’s kind of technical like I’ve I’ve seen like some plaid type of outerwear shells and things like that. just it again it’s it’s kind of taking kind of like that old old school pattern but doing it in a new way the modern fabric as well and it just kind of adds that little bit of texture to your outerwear which you know traditionally has been pretty flat right one of the things that I’ve noticed has come back recently there are good things that have gone and come back there are bad things that have gone and come back I I started playing golf in the khaki era of golf where it was like khaki pants. You’d have a, you know, a shirt with blue, but you also had khaki in it and then a khaki hat and the shoes would be two-tone as well. And and that’s kind of where I got started. And and eventually it just there was just too much khaki at all times and you were basically just watching a brown and white television when you were watching a pro tour event. Um, that has made its way back, but it’s not our grandfather’s khaki. What I’ve noticed in the last couple years is that, you know, you first we had whites, you know, white pant. There was a white pant period which still hasn’t quite closed out. Then we got a lot more gray, you know, and a nice gray like a like kind of a bright a bright light gray. And once they figured out that material, khaki started to come back with that tone. And it’s not the darkish, it’s actually kind of a bright light khaki that we’re seeing. And it really does work with everything from from navies to neons. And it’s kind of a really nice thing to see come back again in Gaul. Yeah, I think it’s kind of that stone color, right? I feel like it kind of sits kind of between khaki and gray and white, you know, and it is kind of a kinder, gentler khaki than maybe you and I remember when we were Yeah. Yeah. first started playing. And I just think we’re kind of back in that earth tone uh era. you know, we had vibrant colors and we had neons and we had the Ricky orange uh yeah phase and uh I think he brought a lot of the vibrant colors back to the game. But yeah, definitely a lot more muted these days and a lot more of the Earth Tones. Uh when you say muted, the brand that surprises me that comes to mind first is Nike. Nike was once in my mind doing everything crazy. you know, they would put Rory in neon yellow and navy blue and they would put Tiger in neon green. Um, but now whenever I look at Nike, I think of Scotty Sheffler and it’s really just a different tone of gray and some light thing. And Rory’s kind of followed that as well for the most part. Um, one thing I’ll give them credit for is that there’s always a matching belt. No matter how weird and different their pant color is in and still a muted tone, there’s always that matching belt. Am I right that Nike has now just really kind of fallen into this this almost like middle stoop of not edgy, not out of style, but just sort of there and kind of classy. Yeah, I think you know I think we’ve seen this over the last couple years with Nike. I do still remember like the neon era. I remember like they had this color was called bolt I think which was like their like neon yellow kind of greenish color and yeah I just remember like Rory wearing that and you know they had hats and shirts and everything little accents and it would just pop. Yeah. And I think some of it they did well uh when as as you were saying like when when they used it as an accent color. I think it got to be a little much and a little kind of overcaffeinated when you know it was like yeah we got tiger in this you know bolt yellow uh polo right and black pants and it was a little bit jarring. So, I mean, I think in that era, they were really kind of leaning into the whole kind of sports performance and kind of that brash sort of take on, you know, kind of being in your face and high performance and and all that. I think they’ve kind of scaled it back the last couple years. Uh, for sure. definitely kind of more muted and earth tones, but uh I do appreciate the belts and what they’re doing with the belts because it does create a very seamless look from like top to bottom and you’re not really you’re not cutting, you know, not cutting your your outfit in half with like a high high contrast belt. All right, let’s go belts. talk to me just sort of generally about belts because where I want to get to is a discussion on white belt but just sort of sort of paint a picture of belts and kind of their evolution and how we use them and what you’ve noticed over the years. Yeah, belts are an accessory. They should complement your outfit. They shouldn’t necessarily match your outfit, but they also shouldn’t ruin your outfit either. I do think that we’ve seen an evolution of belts as well over the last 20 years and like we’ll go back to like the J Linderberg era of like the big belt buckles and I feel like everybody started doing big logoed belt buckles then like you know Nike was doing them, Adidas was doing them, Ralph Lauren was doing them and stuff like that and uh I think then we hit kind of like that exotic belt era where you know it was all like different reptiles and and things. I’m still seeing that on the live golf tour. Actually, there’s a lot of like alligator belts there. Yeah, definitely. Uh, you know, definitely some guys who like Justin Thomas has like an incredible belt collection. No matter what color trousers he’s wearing, it always seems like they’ve like matched the dye perfectly with his belts. Um, but you I think definitely over the last few years we’ve seen, you know, going to more like woven belts and elastic belts and kind of a move away from leather and and things like that. Um, that might just have to do with kind of where we were in like kind of the athleisure area as well and those worked very well kind of with that. I also think like 20 years ago like belts were very much like the focus of the outfit as well with you know think about Anthony Kim and like his belt buckles and things like that like that that was the thing that was drawing attention in the outfit and I think they’ve really just become like yeah like we’re they’re here to kind of support the outfit and you know let’s not ruin the outfit let’s compliment it and you can never really go wrong with matching your belt to your pants like it’s going to create a very kind of seamless transition from top to bottom and I think we’ve seen a lot more of that you know in the last few years especially with guys on tour belts for a while became the focus of the outfit of course there was the white belt um I really liked it honestly like this was at around the same time that Jay Lindberg was coming in with their large bridge logo contrasting color along the back and to me a white belt was kind of the same thing just along the pant Um, and it was sort of shocking and and and noticeable, but in a little bit of a tasteful way, but at some point along the line, it became distasteful. You know, I was watching CattyShack the other day, and Rodney Dangerfield, who’s kind of made out to be sort of the the the anti-ountry club sort of villain at the beginning of the film, even though he’s such a lovable character, he’s wearing red pants and a white belt and and that was just his loud and brash personality. Mhm. You know, at some point it kind of came back around where it was the people with a with the white belt were those with the loud and the brash personality that just sort of were not necessarily the fashion trendsetters, but now they’re the outsiders, right? At what point did that happen? Yeah. No, it’s interesting just thinking about like different retro eras as well, right? I think like that era of like Jay Lindberg and the white belts coming back like felt like we’re in kind of like the 70s retro revival at that time and you know you look back at the 70s like that’s where the white belts were and uh you know it’s cattyshack era and you know you go back and look at um they’re the pleat there’s the plagues there’s you know you look go back and look at like highlights of, you know, that era and it’s like Johnny Miller and Tom Watson wearing the white belts and the plaid pants and and things like that. Um, and it just sort of fit that era of retro and now we’re in a different kind of retro revival eras late 90s and early 2000s is where we are right now. But yeah, I think along the way it sort of became kind of the golfer uniform of like I go play golf so I have to wear a white belt and it’s like no that’s not really the case right or it’s kind of became a symbol of like you know party golf or things like that for me it’s not so much like is it in style um that’s never been like my issue with white belts and I think people think I’m very against white belts I do kind of point them out a lot, but you point out when they are tastefully done. Yeah. And there’s a time and a place for them. And maybe like when do they work? They work with white pants or I think you might even be able to get away with them with like kind of the light kind of stone kind of khaki color that we were talking about before. Right. For me, it’s like I I have a problem with kind of like any belt that creates a lot of contrast in an outfit for the reasons that we’re talking about. So, look, it might be like a black belt with kind of a light colored outfit and trouser and it’s like, wow, you just like totally cut your outfit in half and where, you know, eyes go to where the contrast is. So, look, my all my eye is going to go to your belt basically rather than, you know, your shirt or your pants or whatever should be the the focal point of your outfit. So, I think that’s always been my issue with white belts is like how they were used, especially with some guys on tour who, you know, they, you know, roll out like an all black outfit, but then a white belt. It’s like what do you just like Yeah. You have this nice like monochromatic look going on and you just broke the whole thing up. So, so like white belt on a white pant or trouser and any color top looks great, right? Blends in perfectly seamlessly perfectly. How about how about if we’re going, you know, the white is on top, the white is the polo and the pants are dark. Is it okay to put that white belt there? It’s not as jarring, but I mean you see the contrast of the belt loops. What What is your thought on that? Yeah. So, I mean, maybe this is a little nuanced or technical, but I think if you have kind of a a shorter torso and longer legs, if you wear a white shirt and a white belt, it can kind of balance you out and kind of elongate your torso. If you have shorter legs and kind of a longer torso now, you your belt sort of runs in with your shirt, right? So you look even more kind of like not balanced so much, right? So now your torso looks even longer and your legs look even shorter, right? So, I think that is one way that like you can use a white belt to wear a belt with contrast if you want to match to your shirt rather than your pants to kind of fit your body type. Yeah. You mentioned monochrome, which I love to see. We didn’t see a ton of monochrome in, you know, the ‘9s, but in the early 2000s, Sergio Garcia showed up to an Open Championship, St. Andrews, and Adidas had scripted him in monochrome for the entire week. I I don’t know which way it went, but it was like Saturday, Thursday was all yellow. And because they were now making they were now a able to make shoes in all these different colors, which meant that they could do this. So they had him in an all yellow shoe, pant everything to the lid. The next day was like a green and then they put him in like a maroon and then he had a black, which was really lovely and we see that a lot now. When is monochrome done really well in your opinion? I think it depends on the color. Um, I think some colors are just tough to pull off. Monochrome. I I remember Sergio just getting hammered. So that like canary yellow, but yellow probably not the best. Not not the easiest color to pull off. I think your blacks, your navies, um, I think gray is surprisingly difficult. Like monochrome as well, especially like a lighter gray pretty difficult. Um, I think Dustin Johnson does monochromatic looks better than anybody on tour. He does them all in in a very dark though. It’s a lot of black. Very very dark. He did do like an all green at the Masters this year and I was like I would I would have never thought that this works and maybe it only works for him but again it was a darker green. Um, so I think it’s easier to do with your darker colors um than you know probably your yellows and well Ricky did a lot of monochromatic orange uh back in the day. I don’t know if we could call that orange. We we can we can debate whether that worked or not or uh but yeah um you know I think for me also it’s like what are the shoes um as well and I actually don’t mind like a white shoe with the monochromatic look either but I think if you’re going to do a white shoe you got to do a white hat so you’re kind of bookending oh my god I’m so glad that you’ve said this right so to me it’s like black hat black shirt black belt black pants and okay, where’s the contrast that I’ve created? It’s at the shoe, so that’s where I’m going to look right now. But contrast high and you have it low. It’s like, wow, that really nicely like bookends the the look. So, I think Dustin’s done a really good job over the years. He’s always had like monochromatic I think like he always wears blue on Sunday or he was when he was on the PGH war, right? And I think he always did a really nice job. books. I’m going to wear a white hat and wear white shoes, but I’m gonna have navy monochromatic looks. Um, you know, I think it even works for black. Like, I know a lot of people won’t. Black is I don’t think you can go wrong in an all black outfit. You can’t go wrong in all black. Never. Yeah. Like, yeah. Um, I would just say like be careful though because like it’s actually surprisingly difficult to match your blacks and to match your navies, especially if they’re from different brands. It’s amazing how many times I get a black shirt and black pants, two different brands, and I’m like, “Wow, I like these blacks do not match at all.” And navies are are even worse. And yeah, I remember like we interviewed Billy Horschel a couple years ago and he was like, “Look, no, like one thing I’m particular about is like if I’m wearing navy, my navies have to match like totally throughout my outfit.” Like that’s why he’s one of the best jocks on tour. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s one of the things though I really appreciate about monochrome is how difficult it is to pull off because you have to have a single manufacturer that can do multiple fabrics in a same color. I don’t see many amateurs just wearing, you know, at the local mini or country clubs or things like that doing monochromatic looks. I think it’s really difficult to to pull off. I think about new golfers a lot because I’ve been golfing a long enough time. Um, and I’ve accumulated a golf wardrobe. Um, but for a new golfer, they might feel a little pressured to have kind of a a far-reaching golf wardrobe as well, which can get very expensive. But what I’ve said to some is like, look, you will never go wrong. And I do this actually when I when I travel so that I don’t have to bring too many things, but I can still look good on multiple days. It’s like, you can never go wrong if you’ve only got two colors in your wardrobe. Black and white. Get a white pair of shorts and a black pair of shorts and a white polo and a black polo. And then you only need one pair of shoes really, black or white and a white hat and a white lid. And you can mix those up all you want. You can go full monochrome. both ways. You can mix tops and bottoms. You get a flannel cap like this one. It goes with both. Like you don’t need the two hats either. And you know, you don’t have to be wild to have a very sensible, appropriate, stylish golf look. Mhm. And I think the good thing is that like where we are with like all fashion these days is like so much of what we wear on the course or what’s available to us where on the course also works out in the street these days as well. So it’s like it’s a lot easier to move from the course, you know, out to dinner or out to brunch or or something like that. Um yeah, you know it’s near you’re not like rolling in like maybe you know 20 years ago or something like that where it’s like ah you just played golf didn’t you? Right. Yeah. I think that’s also just as we talked about before just where like a lot of different looks have come into golf these days as more people have have come to the game and are bringing different perspectives where it’s like yeah if you want a street wear look you can play in it and then well you can go out to the to the pub and hang out with your friends if you know that’s the way you want to dress. That probably makes it a lot easier to like move from the from the office to the course, especially as offices are becoming more casual these days. Life is a lot more seamless and transitional now. And I think it’s interesting like that. I think that’s one way that like golf has maybe influenced men’s fashion is that we’re seeing a lot more of the performance fabrics, whether it’s in like dress shirts and dress pants and things like that than, you know, we had in the past. I It’s like, you know, golfers got, you know, kind of used to like those performance fabrics and the comfort that came along with it and it’s like, hey, why can’t I, you know, wear this all of the time? Yeah. Last question, I promise, before we talk about the site. Good. When we talked about monochrome, we kind of touched in color blocking a little bit, and you mentioned mismatching shoes. Now, mismatching shoes is a pet peeve of mine, and it’s an unfair one because for most golfers, like I don’t think you should feel the need to buy multicolored shoes just to look good on the golf course. But, um, like I said, like a black and a white, you could do a lot with those. There are some outfits that just look better with a white that don’t with a black. Um, and I see guys like Tommy Fleetwood, they’ll go all black, but with a white shoe, or vice versa. So, that’s become a pet peeve of mine is seeing that that uh dissonance. What are the pet peeves that you have? Uh, one of my biggest pet peeves with shoes is a black shoe with a light color pant. Um, especially with like a khaki pant. Um, like like to me it’s like it just feels like it weighs down the entire look. like black is it’s a heavy color and there’s a lot of contrast there especially with like a light colored trouser and it’s like again where’s my eye going it’s going to your feet and because of that and it just feels like a very heavy look like I see Xander Shsley do this a lot um only because you briefly mentioned tunnel walks I am so happy that it seems like tunnel walks are coming for Gaul we’re seeing snapshots of they’re in their you know uh luig Boberg is wearing his beautiful classic Adidas, you know, top to bottom, but it’s the street wear and he’s walking in and and and people are noticing this and taking pictures and posting them and it’s coming, isn’t it? Where everyone is now going to be scripted for their entrance to a golf course, not just I already saw with I already saw with TGL, right? It’s just again another way of like how how can we like express ourselves as golfers, right? I do I do want to say like I really wanted more out of TGL though in the actual competitions from a fashion standpoint like in terms of uniforms. You mean not even so much uniforms but I felt like this was an opportunity for brands to like really kind of break out and like do some capsules and like do some things that were different rather than just wearing like the same polo shirt and pants that they were wearing on the course. No one’s going to like simulators wearing like, you know, polo shirt and golf pants, right? Like this is a perfect opportunity just to experiment with different things, whether it’s, you know, like camp shirts or, you know, like getting more into the street wear or, you know, just like wear t-shirts. Who cares? Great point. Yeah. stuck. I want to talk about the day-to-day and kind of the the business aspect of it with golfthreads.com, but in terms of a creative outlet, how does it fit into your life? I think for me, it’s it’s an opportunity to kind of share with other people things that I find interesting and that I’m passionate about. And I don’t know, maybe some people agree, some people don’t agree, but I think that’s the beauty of it as well. And like fashion is very subjective as well. And what one person thinks might be stylish, another person doesn’t. And like even just talking about the evolution of how golf fashion has changed since I started Golf Threads 12 years ago, right? like it was very much the tour look and the country club look and that’s what I wrote about and it you know it was really cool to kind of see some of the street wear elements kind of creep in along the way and you know we kind of had the joggers era and you know we had players and brands that were down in high tops and we started to see collabs with you know kind of high fashion brands and things like that like all of those things are like super interesting to me. For someone out there that is that has any passion, maybe not it’s it’s maybe it’s not a style passion necessarily, but has any passion in golf and they want to do something like this, have a creative outlet for themselves. What is your advice for getting something like this off the ground and finding an audience and making it live online? Yeah, I think now it’s like easier than ever to like do it and get started. And um I often wonder if I started it today, would I still have a website or would I just be focused on like YouTube and Instagram and and and social media? There was a time when people would sit down and read 2,000 or 3,000 words about a collection or a shu or something like that. We have much shorter attention spans uh these days and I I raised my hand like I’m guilty of that as well. Whatever you want to do, like you have the opportunity to do it now. Like if you’re good at video and you like to be in front of the camera, like you have that opportunity right now. It’s never been easier with like an iPhone or, you know, cameras and, you know, lighting is a lot easier to do these days. Like if you want to write, you have that opportunity. If you’re great at taking photos, like whatever your niche is and whatever your angle is, it’s so much easier to do now than even it was like 10, 12 years ago when I got started. But the hardest thing to do is like get started. And like seriously, like I thought about doing golf threads for 2 to three years before I actually did it. And I always came up with, you know, 10 reasons why like I couldn’t do it. And I think for me it was like I started it because I wanted to talk about the things that I wanted to talk about. And I’ve never been after how many page views something got. This is what I want to talk about. And it’s like sometimes like it’s going to resonate with people and something will go viral and other times it’s like well like nobody read this. But to me it’s like being genuine and being authentic is really important to me because it’s like I think that’s how you build credibility, right? As you talk about a business like there really isn’t a business like I don’t make any money off of golf threads and my wife can tell you how much money like I’ve spent of our own money on golf threads, right? Um, so let’s talk about this because I think a lot of people think about a way to have a free lifestyle and and kind of make money online with their passion, right? You’ve decided not to make money from golf threads. I want to talk about that the but for someone who does want to make money with it. How can they do that? And what are the landmines there that they are risking? I think one I think it’s a lot harder than it looks to make money. I think when you bring money and you bring sponsorships into it, I think you lose a little bit of control of your content and your point of view, right? So, if somebody wants to pay you to do a post or do an article or, you know, uh you know, do a do a video about this and I don’t know, maybe it’s it’s not your thing. you’re not really into it, right? But wow, I got to pay the bills this month, right? So, I never really wanted to have like that conflict in my head, but I do think that is a pitfall. I do see that there are people like on Instagram and, you know, social media that’s, hey, one week I’m talking about this and you shouldn’t wear joggers anymore. And then two weeks later it’s like, “Hey, look, I just got these new joggers and like you should be wearing them.” It’s like, well, like two weeks ago you told me not to do this, right? So like is this a sponsor post? Were you paid for this? Like why why have we changed our minds here? So I think being authentic and being genuine that like it’s always been really important to me. You’re constantly changing your point of view. It’s like you don’t have a point of view at all, right? if not money and other than it being the creative outlet for you, what opportunities has this opened up for you, what do you get out of it that make it worthwhile? Yeah. So, I mean, doing Golf Threads opened an opportunity to write to the PGA Tour, which I did for six years. Um, that certainly opened up other opportunities for me. Um, look, I did get paid by the PG tour to write for them. Um, it wasn’t a life-changing amount of money. I wasn’t going to quit my day job um to uh go do that. Look, it gave me great opportunities to go to different events and to go to launch events and to meet people at different brands and to, you know, make friends with people at different brands. I think one of the reasons I originally got into it was if something happened with my day job, did I have kind of an escape route as well? Another network, right? It’s another network that I could build even if like I needed to freelance for a period of time. So, I mean, just having those opportunities, being able to sit on like panels at the PGA show. I was on like golf uh I was on golf channels like Morning Drive. I did like uh you know, a week of segments for them. They flew me out to Orlando for a weekend and we taped like a week worth of segments. I was probably horribly bad at it. They never invited me back, right? It’s like I’m not great in front of the camera, but like what an experience to like go into the studio and to have a couple days where you know you’re working with professionals like in media and being able they’re asking me to talk about like something that you know that I’m an expert in and to be able to have that opportunity to to do that and to you know maybe go play some different courses that I never wouldn’t have had the opportunity to play. And look, you know, there’s free stuff that shows up on the doorstep and that’s not a very bad thing. Like, you know, I have not bought a pair of golf shoes in like 10 or 12 years. And but I’m incredibly grateful for that as well because like, you know, they nobody has to send me that stuff, right? But I it’s great that they like see the value in the content that we’re putting out. And I think part of that is just that we are genuine and we are authentic in what we’re doing, right? So, so you are and there are other ways to monetize as well. You build a big enough audience, your website earns ad revenue, but but where you don’t want to make money is in how it influences your content. That’s the line that you’re drawing here, right? Is like that’s that’s the only place that I don’t want to I don’t want to earn money because it creates a conflict. I’m going to make my money elsewhere, right? by being genuine and being authentic in those reviews and it’s going to open up doors like you said to go on Golf Channel to go to events to be a correspondent those things you can monetize. There was a period of time where I was like there’s about a three-year period where I was like how do I like make a business out of this? Like a legit business how do I quit my day job? I really just want to do this all the time. I think all the business models that I ran and I came up with like I wasn’t going to make the level of income that I was with my day job, right? And I think that’s a decision people have to make as well. Like you know maybe you can like maybe you can make the same amount or more than you are at your day job and that’s awesome. For me it was like the the opportunity cost that for me to like okay look I started building a store uh we had a period of time where we had affiliate links and things like that. I think what I noticed was all of this is now taking away time from my day job, right? And this day job over here is paying the bills and it’s paying the bills a lot more than my golf president is or ever will, right? And it was, you know, probably around that COVID time where like I just I said to myself, look, I think Golf Threads has to be something different than maybe what I’ve wanted to be the last three years or so. and I can still have my own kind of corner of the internet here to talk about the things that I’m passionate about, but I don’t have to grind every day of like trying to figure out how to make this a business. I mean, there there was probably a three to five year stretch where like I felt like I was literally working every day. Um, so I was working day job. Um, at night I was working on golf threads. on the weekends I was working on golf threads when we go on vacation I was working on golf threads right and it’s like yeah I don’t I don’t know that like I want to figure out how to make this into like a business and a day job anymore I want to enjoy it for what it was and I actually started losing the enjoyment of it um because of that it was just like oh it’s a grind I got to do this every day I got to figure out how to make money like this is thing I want to do. Like how can I replace my day job? And like it was just it it became too much for me. Um and to me it was just like I got to get back. So like I’m either going to stop doing this or like I got to figure out a way to enjoy this more. All of that’s taking time away from family as well. Um so yeah, I think we did affiliate links for a period of time. Um I never felt good about it. Um this you do have to post like hey like some of these links are paid right and um I always felt like there was always then a question in people’s mind of like were you putting Justin Thomas in like your dime section of your article because you want to get like affiliate money and uh maybe I was overthinking that but like again like I just want I want people to know that like what we’re writing about and what we’re what we like and what we’re passionate about is like it’s genuine and authentic. It’s not so that you know we can get you to click on a link so yeah, we can get a little bit of money. So basically your your advice then sounds like if you’re doing this, if you’re writing about golf and providing your opinion and if you want to make money off it, the way to do it is to find those other opportunities on the side. Let your unbiased opinion be the value that people want. you know, you’re going to get opportunities to speak. You’re going to get opportunities to write elsewhere, right? People are going to pay you to do what you’re doing on for yourself, maybe elsewhere. You know, if you’re unbiased, you’re going to get a bigger following. You’re going to have people doubt you less. Um, which which raises your credibility and builds a further audience. I will say, look, I there are people like that have quit their day job and like they’ve gone all in and they’ve made it and all props to them. Like I I love that. I think that’s a great story. I think we all have different different priorities as well. Like hey, we got some people have families, some people are single and they’re on their own and like they can they can kind of push all of their chips into the center, right? I don’t want to discourage people uh from doing that, right? But I do think like don’t quit your day job immediately and read carefully. Yeah. Yeah. Like I I was I played with some friends uh a couple days ago and they’re like, “Oh, we should just start our own YouTube channel. Like I hear if you get like 2,000 followers like you know this brand will send you clubs and stuff like that.” I’m like you get you guys are like already in it like for the wrong reason. Yeah. Right now. And like do you know how hard it is to get like 2,000 glitch drivers? just like for every like good good out there. Like I know of so many people that have given up after like three months and six months. It’s like it’s hard and it’s a grind. Like look, it’s a lot of work and a lot of work that people don’t see and like yeah there’s glamorous parts of it of like you know going to like this launch event and going to the PGA show and you know getting this shoe and that shirt and stuff like that but the amount of work that you’re putting in behind the scenes like for me I was spending almost you know another 40 hours a week on top of my day job like trying to do golf threads for a period of time and finding that balance to have your passion and be in your life but not have it overwhelm your life. Uh but also give you kind of a maybe a backup plan or a side hustle that that kind of fulfills a creative need for you is is um kind of the the goal there. But it is Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It is a challenge. That’s kind of why I wanted to start this podcast is because there’s this is already something that interests me learning about people who have lives in golf potentially for me to find my own life in golf whether it’s this channel or whether it’s opportunities that come from it, right? You never know. I don’t know, maybe in a few years like I don’t want to work day job for 40 hours a week, right? Yeah. you know, I wanna I want to retire or but you know, still do something fun or you know, I want to do something, you know, fun and that I’m passionate about for, you know, a period of time. And like having that network there where you know, I could reach out to people and say like, hey, you you need this or you have anything, you know, for me or, you know, I want to I want to go do something fun for for a few years, right? And that opportunity is never going to come along unless you have built some sort of foundation, some sort of basic skill and network by starting it on your own and trying it out and testing it and learning from your mistakes and successes. Well, Greg, I really appreciate the time that you have spent with me today talking about this journey and of course scratching a deep needed itch that I have to talk about color blocking and Jaylindberg and white belts. I love the time and good to chat with you and uh you know your stuff on on Golf Fashion. So yeah, happy to happy to be on anytime. Okay. So, where can people support you and find you? Yeah. So, uh spend most of my time on Instagram. So, Golf Threads Blog on Instagram. The website, as you said before, it’s golf-threads.com. So, yeah, probably don’t hang out on Twitter or X too much anymore. And I think I’m actually going to start doing a little bit of writing for a uh a golf publication uh as well. also kind of getting back into that uh a little bit here and so stay tuned for that. I’ll definitely have some some info up on Instagram when that actually happens and get some things published. Awesome. Good on you. Thanks, Greg. Thank you for watching the FLGolf podcast. Subscribe to keep learning from, laughing with, and being inspired by others who are on a journey and have found lives in golf. If you’ve got an idea for a show or if you want to be a guest, hit me up. And don’t forget, you can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. For a playlist of other full episodes, click right here. For a playlist of best up highlight reels from all our full episodes, click right here. Thanks again for watching and love golf.
