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This week, we’re ringing in one of the best weeks on the golfing calendar, The Players Championship, with drop after drop after drop, from Miami to Ireland! Get a pulse check on the Creator Classic 2.0, and say hello to surprise golf shoe of spring. Also, shoutout to 1440 Media for once again sponsoring this newsletter, they’re great!

I hope you enjoy!

Eastside Golf in Miami

Eastside Golf, in their push to occupy more of the greengrass market, has finally started to make an appearance at physical stores. Announced only last week, the brand has found themselves in Dick’s and Golf Galaxy’s all over the country, including the local (and brand new) House of Sport Miami. I couldn’t wait to go check out what pieces they had on the shelf, and I was elated to see some of the nicest and most exclusive Eastside hats, polos, and jackets. The Shattering Expectations collection was there in full force, from the shorts to the jacket, that pattern looking and feeling nicer in person than I ever could have thought online. Supplementing them were various styles in that classic Eastside tan, as well as a few hoodies, all in different materials and colors.

For one of their first physical spaces, especially in a big box store, there is the perfect amount of stock and variation within that stock to introduce people to the brand’s cornerstones without getting them lost in the copious amount of styles Eastside has available. The Shattering Expectations collection is a huge smash hit, and to be able to go to a store and purchase them is not just a huge step for the brand, but for golf culture in general. And, if that wasn’t enough, the Eastside founders themselves, Earl and Olajuwan, are pulling up this Saturday, March 13, showing that physical spaces for clothes can become so much more than just places to look at and buy them. It can become places for conversation, community, and creativity, especially when a cultural trailblazer like Eastside Golf is in the mix. Run, don’t walk, to Dick’s House of Sport Miami to check out the new Eastside Golf drip, and pull up this Saturday at 1:00 PM to meet the guys behind it all.

Reebok Golf Shoes

After a teaser image appeared without warning online a few weeks ago, we finally have official news on the Reebok Question golf shoe, and for a shoe that just recently we had no idea if it would ever release, it’s coming a lot sooner than we ever could have thought. Three styles were announced, and they blend retro futurism in a way that only Reebook could. First off, and most anticipated, is the Reebok Question golf shoe, releasing in both red and black. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, it’s almost like they took the essence of the upper and reimagined it in a golf shoe silhouette. Very cool stuff, and the light blue sole is such a cool color detail, it goes great with both colors of the Question.

This is insane, but The Pump is back. It’s back! One of my most classic shoe inventions, every sneaker convention I went to, I would always try and find a classic pump shoe in my size, to no avail. Well, now I know where to go, and that’s the Reebok website on March 25. Coming out in very nondescript yet elegant white with patent black accents, the shoe looks like many other traditional saddle shoes until your eye inevitably catches the large-ish “Pump” button on the side. Just imagine pumping your shoe up before you step up to hit your tee shot, a la John Daly. A feeling I do not know, yet wish to experience. Probably feels like you’re swinging off a trampoline.

Lastly, even though it is the newest, is the modern style golf shoe from Reebok, the Nano. Looking like a mix of an Adidas golf shoe with something from GFORE, this sporty model is supplemented with spikeless traction and force plates. I like how they are keeping these models clean, utilizing whites and blacks on everything, helping them stay sleek while hiding all the tech helping you stay comfortable and stable. Priced at $130, these have a fighting chance at disrupting the golf shoe world, but I’ll wait on pushing that narrative further until I get them on my feet.

All of these models go on sale here on March 25 at 10:00 AM est.

Creator Classic

After the resounding success of the first edition at the Tour Championship last season, the Creator Classic is back, and scaled up like any good idea is these days. Instead of starting at the Tour Champ, the first round kicks off tomorrow, the day before The Players Champ, with round two coming before the Truist, and the final round at the Tour Championship once again. This altered the format a bit, as last year’s classic was just a one round event. The players will play holes 10-17, with the top three retuning to 17 for a closet to the pin playoff.

The field has been changed but, interestingly enough not expanded, with some players returning while other ones are getting their first start. To be fair, the Tour has not said who will be playing in any further Creator Classics this season, leaving the potential open for more creators to be announced. But for now, there is an interesting and explicit lack of Good Good, with no Luke Kwon (the defending champ) or Garrett Clark, while Grant Horvat joins the fray, as does Kyle Berkshire, and one of the Barstool guys, who have their own qualifier to see who gets in, among others. While I appreciate they are trying to pick as diverse a set of creators as possible, with each one occupying a certain niche or demographic, this and the field size of only ten has caused them to omit some deserving players. Where’s the Brits? Or Bustajack? I’d like to throw my hat in the ring for Will Lowery, who has been on the forefront of combining golf influencing with traditional golf media for years. His personality, camera presence, and unique style of play (with elite results) would be perfect for this event. But, at this stage, the Tour is drawn to big names and subscriber counts versus personalities, while a baseline skill of being genuinely pretty good at golf (and then someone from Barstool.) All that being said, I still am very excited for the CC this year. I think that the Tour has found a format that works in merging traditional PGA Tour golf with influencer golf, and it is done in a way that can be expanded on in terms of quality and quantity. The Creator Classic kicks off tomorrow afternoon on broadcast and YouTube.

Course of the Week

This week we turn our attention to the crown jewel of the PGA Tour, TPC Sawgrass, the gold standard for Florida golf and keeper of the most famed par-3 in the whole world. It’s almost funny that the 17th hole is so iconic most people don’t even know the terrifying beauty of 6, or 18. The entire course, honestly, is a test not just for the golfers, but for the greenskeepers as well. The standard of this course is well known, it’s perfectly mowed fairways and unbelievably well manicured greens, and it’s on display not just every year but every day, as the course is completely public. It’s one of the most well known and tough tests in golf, with pine straw hiding under almost every tree, water that can be placed in almost any location, and greens that always seem to slope towards trouble, not away from it. A bucket list course for many, and a place of broken dreams for others, TPC Sawgrass from the name to the logo to the blades of grass is a testament to how shared and deep love and passion can create places and events that become cultural moments in their own niche. The Players Championship is one of the few tournaments adored by both players and fans alike, and so much of that is because of just how amazing TPC Sawgrass is.

Brand of the Week

Bold Golf is an emerging golf brand with deep ties to streetwear and city wear culture, yet all done through the unique lens of the company’s Irish heritage. Radda-esque in it’s branding and stock amounts, what the brand doesn’t have in large inventory it has in top grade materials and a penchant for creating design twists that simultaneously create something wholly original and nostalgic at the same time. They’ve worked mostly with elevated materials, appearing at first glance as a heightened streetwear brand with its sleek jackets and oversized jerseys instead of polos, the golf aspect coming through design choices like logos, colors, and fits. Their bags and head covers are of beautifully detailed and high quality pebbled leather, while even the socks have an air of refined luxury, a la Aime Leon D’ore. Their design and material choices are exactly what you’d expect from the name; bold.

While they may not have a lot of stock, they have enough to fit you from head to toe, and this quality over quantity, intricacy over efficiency way of doing things is benefitting the small brand as it gears up to release it’s second collection, the Miami collection. How amazing is that? As a Miami native, I am waiting with baited breath to see what an Irish-designed, Miami-inspired luxury golf streetwear drop will produce, especially with Bold Golf’s off-kilter grandiose and eye on intricate design (just take a look at their 1 of 1 golf bags done in conjunction with artists.) The only teaser we’ve seen so far is of the knit jersey, and I already am in love. MIAMI emblazoned across the front in nondescript all caps, like a statement of knowledge, not a brag of subjectivity. The I-95 crest right over the heart, in my mind, is to show that you survived a treacherous drive on that terrifying deathtrap of a highway. I’m enamored with how they took their perception of Miami culture and brought it back to Ireland, rather than just trying to make what they believe is what Miami clothing is. This signifies to me a brand with a strong vision and creative direction, and as the golf apparel space becomes more and more saturated, we are starting to see breadcrumbs of what can take a brand from flash in the pan to cultural standpoint. Bold Golf is leaning towards the latter.

The Bold Golf Miami Collection releases tomorrow, and an exclusive interview about the collection will be out later this week.

Sneak of the Week

While the big news of the week is Reebok’s return, this spotlight has to go to what is now known as one of the most consistent and beautiful in golf as a whole; Jon Buscemi’s yearly collaboration with Footjoy. Since 2022, this collaboration has given us a Footjoy shoe with enhanced designs and materials, and this year is no different. Coming in with a beautiful all over rose pink, it makes every single little circle of the pebbled leather pop, taking attention away from the deep set tan of the liner, or even the somehow conducive red stripe on the heel loop. Gold spikes float among a sea of navy underfoot, with more gilded accents across the edges. Footjoy blends unique classic style with hidden modern technology like no other company (other than Sun Day Red), and this yearly infusion of luxury always sets the golf world on fire. These shoes are sure to remain grails for years to come, not only because of how nice they look, but how surely hard they will be to obtain.

The shoes will drop on Footjoy.com on March 13.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Weekenders Weekly! What a great week of releases and golf, The Players always feels like turning point in the season, everything really begins to ramp up. I appreciate how it’s become a time for brands to create beautiful clothing and shoes, the color palette of TPC combined with sunny Florida allows for creativity to skyrocket. The Creator Classic 2.0 will surely be interesting, my money is on Grant Horvat or George Bryan (sorry Roger, you’re number 3), and I hope they allow the players to be bit more intimate during the match, as hiding the player’s personality behind competitiveness is not how YouTube golf got to the level it is at today. And get my man Will Lowery in there!!!! TGL playoffs start next week, interviews drop next week, and I may have a few tricks up my sleeve coming into the Spring season. Go play some golf!!!!!!!