So, about April...
Where I've been, what I've been thinking about, what's coming
I wrote on the first Monday of April, and then I disappeared. I’d like to pin that on one thing in particular but really it was a chorus of things. April was a lot. April was Augusta and Topsail and three new clients arriving more or less at once, and somewhere amidst it all, two young kiddos inching toward the end of a school year. So let’s catch up.
I went to Augusta with the Greyson Clothiers crew, who were celebrating the season’s first major with a limited-edition capsule collection and a sneaker collab with Saucony. Our goal was to help patrons “own the mornings” at Augusta, with partners like AG1 and Hyperice, a small motion against the fact that Masters week, for most brands, becomes an arms race of evening parties and open bars.
This was the tenth Masters I attended, which is itself a number I can’t quite believe I get to say. But it was the first time I fully realized something. We all know about the magic of the no-phones thing. But this year, walking around Augusta on a perfect April afternoon, I had a different thought. I can’t think of another place on earth where 100% of the people are happy where their feet are. Not 80%. Not “most of us, mostly.” Everyone. The volunteer pouring iced tea is thrilled. The grandfather on his 40th pilgrimage is thrilled. The guy whose company handed him the badge as a thank-you is, you bet, thrilled.
That’s the magic. The lack phones is part of it, sure. But the deeper thing is gratitude—a whole field of it. You can feel it the second you cross the North Gates. I’ve actually tried to bottle that energy. Imagine being happy where your feet are more often?! At your desk, at the grocery store, in the carpool line. Sure, it’s a far easier feat to pull off at a place like Augusta, but the feeling is absolutely portable.
A week later I was in Topsail, North Carolina, for John Mann’s funeral. John was my college coach’s husband (I played golf at the University of Virginia), and he was the kind of person you wanted to sit next to at dinner—he was endlessly curious and told wonderful stories. Sitting there at the church where we celebrated his life, I realized this was the second funeral I’ve been to in my life. The first was my dad’s. John and my dad shared a beautiful quality: an ability to spend quality time with the person in front of them. When you engaged in conversation with them, it was as if nothing else in their lives had mattered. Perhaps none of this has anything to do with golf, but I think all of it does. The people I most want to walk 18 with are the ones who make you feel like there’s nowhere else they’d rather be—they engage, they ask questions, they tell stories, they smile.
The other thing that happened in April: three new clients arrived, which means I am now, officially, maxed out. Maxed out to the point of having to rehire the babysitter we hadn’t hired for 10 months. Feeling a healthy mix of anxious and grateful about it all.
An interesting topic of discussion I’ve had with two clients lately revolves around brand. What does it mean to brand a golf destination well? Is there even a right way? Is there a wrong way?
Who decided that every course at a multi-course property needed its own name, and every restaurant on the property needed its own name, and every name needed its own logo, and every logo needed its own merch program, and every merch program needed its own little tonal world? Because at some point in the last decade, that became the default setting. You don’t go to a resort anymore. You go to The Reserve, play the Henrietta, lunch at Birdie, nightcap at The Nineteenth, and walk out with a hat from each. I’m exaggerating, but only barely.
I understand the argument. More naming equals more world-building equals more emotional anchor points equals more reasons to come back equals more merch. And it works. Outside of golf, Ralph Lauren feels like the masterclass: Polo, Purple Label, Double RL, Black Label, RLX, Ralph's Coffee, each with its own identity, its own customer, its own world, all stitched into the same empire. It's iconic and it's lucrative and it would be silly to call it a mistake. But the streamlined approach can be just as powerful. Hermès, for the most part, holds the line—one logo, one orange box, one visual world, even across an enormous range of products.
Inside golf, you see the same split. Bandon Dunes has named everything: Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, Old Macdonald, Sheep Ranch, Bandon Preserve, Shorty’s, the Punchbowl. Each name has its own logo, and the place is beloved. Te Arai Links, on the other hand, is the streamlined version—Te Arai is Te Arai, the courses are simply the North and the South, and the master brand carries the whole experience. Also beloved.
I don’t think there’s a right answer. I don’t even think there’s a better one. What I do think is that both approaches require real intention. The maximalist version only works when every name and mark earns its place; when it’s telling a real story, not just generating logos for the wall of hats. The streamlined version only works when the master brand has enough confidence and clarity to carry the whole thing by itself. The places that get into trouble are the ones in the messy middle: a handful of sub-names that don’t follow a system and feel haphazard, even if slightly. A master brand muddied by its own accessories.
The month of May, if you’re wondering, is somehow going to be more eventful. Travels to Pinehurst, Bluffton, and the Hamptons, plus the one-and-only golf tournament I play per year, plus two boys finishing the school year, which I keep telling myself I’m ready for and which I am, of course, not ready for at all.
But I’m here. I’m writing again! The Mondays are back.
Monday R.E.P.O.R.T.
What I’m reading, loving, trying, and overthinking this week.
R: Reading—”Can LIV Golf work without the Saudi billions?” by Gabby Herzig, The Athletic. I generally stay away from this topic, but really enjoyed this article. The short version: Saudi Arabia's PIF is pulling its funding at the end of this season. LIV now has a few months to find someone willing to bankroll $30 million purses and nine-figure player contracts for a league that hasn't cracked TV ratings or broad fan engagement. A real plot twist, no matter where you've sat on the whole LIV question.
E: Excited About—a summer of golf. I tee it up with my whole family at Palmetto Bluff in two weeks (I’ve never been!), then at National Golf Links of America later this month, then at Victoria National in June with my sister and our two college teammates, then back to the Old Course at St Andrews in July with the TravisMathew team. I mean…the dream!
P: Pairing—Greyson’s Wind Half-Zip and Wind Skirt. I absolutely love wearing this set, it’s flattering, comfy, and somehow the kind of thing you’d happily wear off the course, too. Already lobbying for more colors. Several more, ideally.
O: Obsessing over—this mineral SPF. Most mineral sunscreens feel heavy, leave a white cast, or cost a ton of money. This one does none of the three. It actually disappears on the skin, it’s drugstore-priced, and the niacinamide and ceramides in the formula are a nice little bonus for any face that spends as much time outside as a golfer’s tends to. My dermatologist sister bought this for me a few weeks ago, and since it’s on sale right now I just bought a few more to stash in my various bags. It’s the best mineral SPF I’ve ever applied.
R: Recommending—these Payntr shoes. These are the only golf shoes my husband now wears, the only shoes he ever wants to wear, and I feel fairly certain he’d choose them over me. He’s obsessed, and so are many other golfer men in my life. I’m not exactly sure what these guys love most about them (apparently they’re beyond comfortable and offer loads of support), all I can say is they look sleek.
T: Thought That Resonated—”Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” —Philosopher Lao Tzu
Some housekeeping…
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