I was not the only one who turned to golf for solace during the pandemic. Maybe you were bitten by the bug long ago, or rediscovered the game during the doldrums of a WFH summer. Perhaps you fell into it for the very first time. What’s clear is that the sport wasn’t just a lockdown respite. You’re not just imagining that demand at your local munis is still up: The great 2020 golf boom reportedly resulted in a net increase of 60 million–plus rounds of golf—the big- gest one-year gain since 1997, when a young man named Tiger Woods won his first major. And last year alone, more than 3 million people hit a golf course for the first time, according to the National Golf Foundation.
Why is this happening? Start with this undeniable fact: Playing golf is fun. But the fun can only get you so far, which brings us to the second thing: We are living in a golden age of gateway drugs to the game. In recent years, a number of new products, podcasts, publications, courses, clubs, shows, and stewards of the sport have redefined how a new kind of golfer might indulge their passion. Fellow golf sickos got busy inventing things that didn’t yet exist but that they themselves wanted. If the sport that millions and millions of people are getting into feels different, that’s because it is. This is golf ’s new no-rules era.
For years, it felt like the world of golf existed between two poles: the occasional Sunday afternoon PGA Tour check-in on CBS and a subscription to Golf Digest. Now, everything in between is at your fingertips, provided you know where to look. If you’re new to loving the game—or at least new to digging deeper—consider this a menu of the glories on offer. It’s never been easier to spend every last moment of your free time falling ever more in love. —Daniel Riley
Reason 1: The Clothes Don't Suck Anymore
I used to accept that golfing meant dressing like a dork. The clothes were stretchy, weirdly colorful, and fit terribly. But a few photos on display in my local course's clubhouse suggested an inherent stylishness: Arnold Palmer in a sick cardigan, Jack Nicklaus in a giant-collared polo, '90s Tiger in very 2022 baggy pants. Today, a small-but-growing group of brands merging streetwear logic, skateboarding energy, and high-end performance fabric are upending country club casual by pushing one fringe belief: that golf clothes can in fact be cool. Best of all, there's a little bit of something for everyone:
Drake's Nocta partnership with Nike for techwear; Metalwood Studio for wild graphics; Radda Golf for razor-sharp polos; Whim Golf (tagline: “For people who might like golf”) for quiet clothing that hides its performance appeal. And if you're worried that ditching your stretch Lycra polo will cost you a few strokes, just look to the example of pro Keith Mitchell, who's been wearing Sid Mashburn's lineup of wool slacks and piqué polos—the stuff that the sport's legends used to rock—and still manages to drive the ball 300-plus yards. —Sam Schube
Reason 2: These Guys Are Bringing Caddyshack Energy Back To The Sport
If there's an epicenter of golf's new wavy moment, it might be Roosevelt Golf Course in Los Angeles, where the crowd includes local duffers, a few obscenely talented 11-year-olds, and, lately, staffers from the streetwear shops on La Brea. “There's music playing, there's beer-drinking,” says Cole Young—reformed college golfer, proprietor of Metalwood Studio, and unofficial mayor of L.A.'s wild-style golf scene. (That's him in the neon hat on the opening page.) “It's someone's first time playing golf and then it's my 10,000th time. If you're trying to break the course record, we're going to disarm you very quickly.” It makes sense that golf's great vibe shift would happen here, in the land of the freelancers. Thanks to the weather, the great public courses, and (as Young puts it) “the fact that no one in L.A. actually has a real day job,” the city has become a hotbed for the game's new breed of obsessives, who are more likely to wear Dickies and vintage tees than Dockers and Under Armour. Best of all, the sensibility is being felt at turf-mat munis all around the country. —S.S.
Reason 3: The Coaches Caught Up With Us
The internet has upended golf instruction in a way that has also upended most of my friends' brains: Now, in addition to playing all the time, you can watch a never-ending series of Reels and YouTube instructional videos, collecting swing tips…and swing tips…and more swing tips, as you spiral ever deeper. But we are also in an era of unprecedented access to actual tour-level coaches, like George Gankas, the madman behind pro Matthew Wolff's mad swing, who offers an absurdly comprehensive online course, and Mike Bender, Zach Johnson's coach, who posts excerpts of his daily lessons on Instagram. There is also Skillest, an app that connects you with any number of driving range wise men, some of whom are genuinely wise. Our advice? Pick one (and only one) guru, and see if you can't get a little better—and if you don't, find another guru. —Zach Baron
Reason 4: There's A Podcast (And Magazine, And Community) For Everyone
It used to be the case that there were only a few places to get your golf news and commentary, all of which came with a heavy side of gear reviews. But there's been a revolution in golf media—one marked by a desire to showcase what we love about the game, and to change our notions of who gets to love it. These three organizations are leading the charge. —D.R.
No Laying Up: This squad of golf maniacs has built its group chat turned podcast into a must-listen for insights into both the high and low ranks of the sport, mostly from pro golfers eager to get confessional. But its web videos, which include travel and docuseries, are more attuned to what makes golf lovers love golf. Strapped, an ongoing journey of budget golf in budget America by Big Randy and Neil, the Bert and Ernie of NLU, uses golf the way that Anthony Bourdain used food: as a window into the depth of life that exists outside the spotlight.
The Golfer's Journal: TGJ produces a quarterly magazine with rich, history-minded features on the game's most indelible characters that edges into collectible coffee-table-book territory. That alone would be worth a subscription, but signing up is loaded with utility beyond that too: It gets you exclusive access to tournaments and events—and a connection to other readers, any of whom might become your next playing partner.
Random Golf Club: Erik Anders Lang created Random Golf Club to cater to his own later-in-life obsession with the game, but what began as YouTube videos and podcasts has evolved into something more like a community: RGC has become known for massive on-course meetups where 60-odd golfers play as one mega-group. This is not your grandpa's country club outing.
Reason 5: The Pros Have Started Playing To The Cameras
Tiger woods is the most influential golfer in history not just for his on-course play but also for the example he set for fellow golf pros: Dominate tournaments, collect sponsorship money, mouth platitudes, reveal nothing, ever. No wonder people think golf is boring. But a new generation of media-savvy players is happily changing this by being, well, human beings.
The 31-year-old Californian Max Homa tweets about the game like a fan…from the middle of tournaments he's playing in. (After day one of the PGA Championship: “I'm currently losing to Rory by 5 and to allergies by 1000. I enjoy the challenge.”) Joel Dahmen and Harry Higgs both flashed their bare chests at the notoriously raucous 16th hole of the Waste Management Phoenix Open to egg on the crowd and show off their charmingly regular physiques. And best of all? Netflix now has cameras on all these guys for a forthcoming Drive to Survive–style series about golf. We are about to enter the fully personality-driven era of the game. Thank God. —Z.B.
Reason 6: It Feels Great To Be Bad At Something
Golf can seem pointless—but that's sneakily the greatest thing about the game. Spending a few hours doing something difficult that has nothing to do with the rest of your life? That's practically therapy. I found out just how difficult—and thrilling—the sport can be recently when a friend talked me into taking my first cuts. I was terrible—and completely engaged for hours. Usually, self-improvement is about moving from unconscious incompetence—the stage when you don't even know how bad you are at something—to unconscious competence, when you've got a handle on things and find a flow. Even tour pros can linger in the middle phase, conscious incompetence, when you're all too aware of your shortcomings. That's a good thing, I think: It requires you to approach it with a childlike mentality, to cultivate presence and acceptance. It's maybe the only wellness practice, in other words, that includes hard seltzer and gambling. —GQ Wellness Columnist Joe Holder
Reason 7: The Golf Trip Got Great—and Easy
A Months-in-the-works journey to a bucket-list course or five has always been one of the great perks of the sport, but for years the top destinations weren't quite so obvious, or accessible. No longer. Here are a handful of our favorite all-in golf destinations. —D.R.
Bandon Dunes: The gold standard. The six-course golf-and-only-golf resort on the remote southwestern coast of Oregon is as well known today as the linksland of Scotland but still makes visitors feel like they're the ones discovering the place.
Sand Valley: An alien golf paradise in the upper Midwest, planted in the prehistoric sand dunes of Wisconsin.
Pinehurst: The best of classic American golf. With nine full-length courses splayed out among the Sandhills of North Carolina, the resort has refreshed itself to enter a second century on the top shelf.
East Lothian And Fife, Scotland: Yes, the age-old hosts of the Open Championship, like St. Andrews, are still worth the trip. But you can now design a visit pointed at not just the country's tip-top (and often overstuffed) offerings but also the remarkable wealth of, say, the 27th-best course in Scotland. For a first outing, fly into Edinburgh and look up these lesser-knowns: Elie, Crail, Gullane, and North Berwick, each about an hour from the airport.
Cabo San Lucas And Playa Del Carmen, Mexico: Two resorts on opposite coasts of Mexico: Diamante in Cabo San Lucas blends arroyos, dunes, and Pacific Ocean. At Mayakoba's El Camaleón in Playa del Carmen, the hazards are jungle and cenotes. And dinner's in Tulum.
A version of this story originally appeared in the August 2022 issue with the title “7 Reasons to Get Involved in Golf’s New No-Rules Era"