Woke Golf Culture and a Marketing Evolution

Recent trends and themes on golf social media, specifically Twitter and Instagram, have ignited a shift in how brands market their products to you. While still small in volume, the growing ‘Woke Golf’ culture takes a hard stance on minimalism, conservatism, and at times how the game should be played.

What is Woke Culture?

Let’s set a baseline. ‘Woke Culture’, at its core, has nothing to do with golf or any sport. It’s a political term that refers to “an awareness of issues concerning social and racial justice.” While both themes tangentially touch on sports — it’s impossible to completely separate large-scale social issues from large-scale athletics — the concept of “staying woke” started in a very different place than how it’s used on social media today.

Over time, the concept of staying woke has been applied to other areas vastly unrelated to politics. This includes the super opinionated Golf Twitter landscape; a legion of like-minded, young, educated, liberal, white followers not afraid of jogger pants and the ‘tweet’ button.

Suddenly, a new golf theme emerged from the overuse of the ‘woke’ term: traditional minimalism.

What is Woke Golf Culture?

In a way, Woke Golf Culture is the zeitgeist for a population comprised of the individuals described above. Its origins include a smaller group of Golf Course Architecture (GCA) enthusiasts opining on the finer qualities of course design, igniting an ongoing conversation (and multiple podcasts) on the topic.

The Fried Egg is a fantastic website whose primary focus is GCA, with fellow Chicagoan Andy Johnson at the helm. In an excellent piece he authored this October, Johnson examines whether woke golf culture has become elitist; teetering on exclusivity rather than the opposite.

I’m not completely sure what “woke golf culture” is, but I’m guessing it has something to do with golfers who enjoy learning about and discussing golf course design. I don’t think that’s necessarily “elitist” at all.

Yes, many of the best-designed American courses are private and exclusive, and therefore could be considered elitist. But one great thing that I think today’s golf architecture enthusiasts have done is help promote public, affordable, and architecturally interesting courses.

I agree with this sentiment, specifically as it relates to golf courses. For example, I would have never thought of playing Canal Shores had it not been for websites like The Fried Egg and publications like the Golfer’s Journal. Examples of how crowd-sourced ‘wokeness’ can yield positivity are everywhere.

Smaller subsets of this culture now permeates through other areas of the industry, especially in golf equipment and accessories. Woke Golf Culture, and all of its opinions, have begun to change what we “should” or “should not” play in the eyes of those who contribute the loudest.

How are Brands Responding?

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the era of high-end Sunday bags and artisan clubs.

For whatever reason, the concept of carrying your clubs while playing (carts are bad!) has taken precedence among those who are most Woke. In fact, it is recommended to do so with fewer than 14 clubs while wearing shoes that can be worn on and off the course. Many of those clubs “should” be persimmon and/or hickory shafted, which are best used when striking a discount golf ball.

Accessory brands touting the benefits of using handcrafted, tartan headcovers, milled ball markers and wooden alignment aides have popped up seemingly overnight. The craftsmanship in these pieces are incredible, along with their accompanying price tags.

This desire to get back to one’s golfing roots started as a means to celebrate the nostalgia of the game. I can appreciate that; we all have memories of growing up using our first set of hand-me-down clubs. But does this mean we have to completely abandon technology in an effort to appear most appreciative of the game?

Furthermore, why is playing anything other than the bare minimum in tech suddenly a bad thing?

Looking Ahead

There is plenty of room in golf for the multitude of ways to enjoy it. Brands like Linksoul, TRUE Linkswear, Seamus Golf, Artisan Golf, and dozens of others understand that niches make this game a beautifully complicated industry. Consumers will respond, and most of these brands will be successful.

What muddies the waters, unfortunately, are the extremists in the Woke Golf culture that prefer to tell others how to behave and how to enjoy the game. Perhaps pockets of exclusivity and elitism are unavoidable in golf; however, this doesn’t have to become the ultimate end point of widespread movements like what we’re seeing now.

Brands have a responsibility to help us understand how emerging trends can emphasize the best parts of golf and not why their customers are better than the rest of us. There is a difference between marketing to make a sale and contributing to negative exclusivity for the sake of a dollar.