Swing Kids

14th October 2017

With golf’s popularity reportedly on the wane, Paul Croughton meets the urban hipsters who are bringing a new energy and attitude to the game.

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Illustration by Satoshi Hashimoto

The colonisation of parts of East London and Brooklyn by hipsters – with their plaid shirts, cereal cafes, beards, fixed-gear bikes and sleeve tattoos – has been without doubt one of the defining counter-cultural movements of the past 20 years. While these urbanites may embrace hobbies such as beekeeping or jam making, sport is rarely on their radar. Until recently, that is. Until they took up golf.

Yes, golf. The individuals who make up this new breed of golfing hipsters are often successful young men who work in non-traditional industries, such as tech. They might own a digital agency, say, or produce music videos. They live in East London rather than the suburbs, and they're drawn to golf not by the need to cosy up to their CEO on his weekly game (they probably are the CEO) but by social media and the videos of golf bloggers such as Rick Shiels, or the online antics of five-time PGA Tour-winner and general goofball Ben Crane.

I like that the fact that golf is a never-ending battle with yourself, both your body and your brain

Nic Liu, 32, is a music producer and DJ; Nicolas Salzano, 38, a digital director and chef; and Fred Warburton, 22, a product designer. They embody this golfing avant-garde. They’re cool, for a start. They’re not members of an individual club, preferring the variety of public courses (where, as at Goodwood, there is no dress code) or their increasingly natural habitat, a late-night driving range. There, they can, in the words of Warburton, “have a beer and hit some balls” until 1am.

They shun the typical golfing attire, instead wearing clothes (or “wavy garms” in their parlance) that wouldn’t look out of place in an Old Street pub. “Fashion is massive in golf now,” says Warburton, citing labels such as FreshClobber and VICE Golf. Bright polo shirts and baseball caps figure highly.

In terms of kit, in Liu’s bag you’ll find second-hand TaylorMade clubs, but he has his eye on a set of handcrafted forged irons by Miura. The hipster golfer also loves a gadget: BioMech’s putting app and
sensor analyses your stroke in real time, and can be used to add a further element of competition to a round.

have a beer and hit some balls

“I like that the fact that golf is a never-ending battle with yourself, both your body and your brain,” says Salzano. “It's very addictive. It's also a good way for me to unwind, to not think about work, to get out of London and breathe some fresh air.” 

The poster boy for these golfing hipsters is Andrew “Beef” Johnston, a 28-year-old pro who plays on the European Tour, known as much for his baseball cap, long beard and ample girth – together with his laidback and genial attitude – as for his ability. He and his ilk are breaking down much of golf’s fusty, exclusively middle-class image. Whisper it, but the hipster golfer might be the future.

This article is taken from the Goodwood magazine, Autumn 2017 issue

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