ACL GOLF

No one really wants to know why I am into golf, or how I re-discovered my interest in the game. Unless of course, you are interested in golf in which case I’m sure you would love to chat about it. Over the past several years I’ve come to understand that golf and the people who love the game are both amazing and sort of awful at the same time. Mostly I realized this because of my reluctance to talk about it with people unless I know they are into the game. The optics of golf have to be at an all-time low – weighed down by the proliferation of mercerized polo shirts, Donald Trump and general obnoxious golf-related things which make us all cringe. But then there’s this other side of the game that seems to sidestep all of that stuff and really project it as a wonderful leisure activity. Will Welch at GQ indulged me a few times and let me write about some of the things I love about the game. The hope for those stories was to help explain why I think golf is actually great. Spending time outside with your friends doing something that doesn’t involve a phone. The bond you form with people over the game — the great people who you would probably not have a chance to befriend otherwise. The traditions at different clubs, course architecture, history, attempting to master something extremely difficult…I could keep going.

There’s a lot to love about golf, but there’s also a lot to dislike about golf shops. As someone who is interested in clothing and retail, there’s a lot of room for a new type of golf shop. So instead of trying to piece together good stuff for golf via the internet and country club pro shops my friend Cory Heenan and I decided to open the golf shop that we wanted to shop at. The name ACL Golf started because I wanted to spare my Instagram followers from having to see a lot of golf posts when they probably didn’t sign up for that sort of thing. Sort of like when someone you follow has a baby and their feed becomes 100% kid zone. So ACL Golf on Instagram was formed, and then the idea to open a shop came along and we jumped at it.

The inspiration for the store comes from our own frustration with finding things we like to wear to play golf. Our circle of friends is made up of creative people who work in the fashion or design communities and our collective approach to the game of golf is slightly different than what is presently represented at retail. We hope you like it and would be satisfied if it made a few people look at golf a bit differently. The shop is open now and will run through the end of the year in Los Angeles. We hope to see you around and for those that aren’t in Southern California, you can follow along at ACL GOLF. I’m going to attempt to put the ACL merch into an online shop in January if you like those snapbacks. More info about the shop is below.

The brand list includes Dunning, NWKC, Haywood, Bubba Whips, Sugarloaf Social Club, Outerknown, Salt & Stone, Claret Dreamer, Billykirk, Swet Tailor, Jones Golf, Phanz, Adidas Golf, Lie + Loft, Bombas, Pappy & Co, Malbon + more.