And who were your nominees for golfer-to-jump-out-of-the-pack-and-post-a-crazy-low score in Thursday’s first round of The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club?
If you said Hunter Mahan, go to the head of the class. Also, don’t shave for the weekend and start cultivating a soul patch and your inner surfer dude-cum-bad boy image. And hit the gym. Or, at least, look like you might by stocking up on some Under Armour.
If Mahan isn’t the freshest face on tour, he does have some of the freshest things to say. He shot nine-under 62 Thursday, good for a four-stroke lead,and he shot from the hip earlier this month when he pointed out, in an interview withGolfMagazine, that the Ryder Cup is a HUGE moneymaker for the PGA, but that the players are not rewarded nearly as well in what has evolved into a vast commercial enterprise. The observation was not quite original, but still took some cojones.
He was then sent into a Chinese re-education camp. Oops, wrong sporting event.He then had a chat with PGA boss Joe Steranka, who enlightened him on the finer points about the selflessness involved in representing your country in team play.
But more about Mahan and Under Armour. I don’t know enough about either, and that’s saying a lot because Mahan, in his fifth full season, is a onetime winner on Tour who finished 16th on the money list in 2007, played on the U.S. President’s Cup team, and was 31st coming into this week. As for Under Armour, it’s a $700 million performance-activewear company whose interlocking U and A are now on men’s, women’s and children’s shirts and shorts. (Yup, sharp-eyed partner Rico pointed out one of their techy white tops on a two-year-old as we walked the grounds of Ridgewood Country Club Wednesday.)
Under Armour is also a darling of off-course golf specialty retail, including Golfsmith and Golf Galaxy. If you haven’t noticed, and because your local muni is generally undermerchandised, these big box specialty stores serve asde factogolf shops for muni course golfers. That means there’s plenty of Under Armour being worn on golf courses, too.
And what’s the take-away? Well Under Armour is clearly cut from the authentic-technical-just-get-thee-to-a-gym fabric. I have yet to see a 100-percent cotton shirt from Under Armour, so it’s all about performance, moisture wicking and stretch, putting it in good company with the category creators and leaders: Nike and adidas.
And while I can’t vouch for the message Under Armour is trying to send, it’s clearly on the athletic, in-your-face side. So Mahan, 26, would seem to be on point. Visage obscured by dark wrap-around glasses and, when the weather warrants, he wears a base compression layer under a performance polo. Mahan is the brand’s posterboy, its emissary to the golfing public. So much so that he reminds me of an earlier era when golfers seemed to step right from the designer and brand showrooms they represented: Davis Love III and Justin Leonard in Polo Ralph Lauren; David Duval in Tommy Hilfiger; Ben Crenshaw in Bobby Jones. Most of those relationships didn’t stand the test of time, but for a moment the golfers in question seemed rich and fitting embodiments of the brands.
Mahan has game and ‘tude. Can’t imagine Under Armour, an underdog itself until fairly recently, would have it any other way. — Robert Lohrer