If you aren't watching the US Open are you even working?
Leaving aside the finances of LIV and the PGA. You can also throw out the slow-growth, low-margin equipment business. I'm here for the outfits. These fittish, highly-strung men are soldiers in the global war for the soul of the most loyal, price-oblivious customers in all of retail: Men. All golf clothes are basically athleisure now. Men's athleisure is a $100b business and growing.
Here's Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka.
Justin is wearing a $98 Talo Polo and $198 Sequoia Knit Trousers from Greyson Clothiers. Justin is one of the financial backers of Greyson, which just raised $20 million in Series A money. Greyson didn't disclose the terms but if the company pulls in, say, $50 million $250 million would be a ballpark guess. Other "friends of Greyson" include Jon Rahm, Shane Lowrey, and Justin Timberlake, who used to be big with the kids.
The Greyson website lets you cosplay as your favorite golfers with a simple click. And, seriously, any brand that works for Justin Timberlake and Shane Lowery look good would probably work for me or anyone else.
Brooks is beating the crap out of Justin but moving almost zero product for Nike, which pays Brooks millions to look annoyed and hit absolute BOMBS in Majors. Nike proudly, famously spends millions sponsoring athletes which it then dresses horribly. The former home of Tiger Woods, Nike now dresses world #1 Scottie Scheffler like he found something in the hamper.
Nike is out of stock on a lamentable amount of the better stuff, suggesting some kind of supply chain problem, misread of demand, or both.
Golf isn't watched by everyone but it's watched by an amazing demographic: rich guys who like comfortable stuff. That's just about everyone these days. Now that you can wear most of this stuff at work or the golf course isn't just a small advance for men but huge business. $LULU is missing the cut with Min Wu Lee but he looks good. Golf has been a big push for Lulu and the results are mixed. Men's grew 8% last quarter for Lulu, which is the slowest growth Lulu has seen in a while.
If you don't think men basically all dress alike, or that golf can influence how people dress IRL you missed the late 90s Tiger Pleat Era. Exhibit A: Tiger Woods in 1998. Me and my golf buddies, same year.
Pant-leg-flapping was a real thing and a problem on the greens.
Nike is bouncing on the tariff delay but can they really be so consistently uninspired in apparel, footwear AND the website and make a consistent combeback? Because they still seem pretty lost and lack the action of say, Starbucks (another consumer brand with a similar list of problems as Nike.) I think it matters that my Starbucks experience is improved but Nike is still working on long-promised innovation.
All of this is actionable. It's the start of investment homework. It matters when Nike dresses athletes like hobos. The fact Nike.com is clunkier and has worse out-of-stocks than Justin's start up clothing company says bad things about Nike. Justin is going to miss the cut but he's going to make more on Greyson than Nike is paying Brooks. Because the Greyson stuff is nicer and in stock.
So go ahead, kick back and turn on some golf. Give in to the urge to nap. That's your brain locking in ideas. It's all part of the investment process. Limit yourself to a few hours. You don't want to work too hard.
The brands to watch: $UAA, $MODG, $GOLF, $LULU $NKE,
