Yesterday, to the tune of a million contented sighs from sofas across the nation, men’s golf became one of the first sports to return to live broadcast TV. The afternoon saw PGA Tour stars Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy pair off against Rickie Fowler and up-and-comer Matthew Wolff in a socially distanced skins match, presented by TaylorMade, that collected money for COVID-19 relief. Johnson and McIlroy played for the American Nurses Foundation; Fowler and Wolff for the CDC Foundation. In all, the event raised over $5.5 million—and provided a shockingly normal afternoon of television. (And it won't be the last event of its kind: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will tee off for charity this coming weekend.)
The whole thing—and I watched from start to finish—was oddly thrilling. The production had an almost DIY feel (the PGA of America CEO, Seth Waugh, had promised nothing less than the “Blair Witch Project of golf”). Grackle birds and audio glitches could be heard, while crowd cheers could not—as of course, nobody was there. President Trump called in. Seminole, the Juno Beach, Florida course looked pristine. But most compelling were the players themselves, semi-fresh out of isolation. Notably, all wore shorts—in professional play, tour players must wear pants, so this was new. Some had exaggerated facial hair. Yet nothing was quite so noticeable as Wolff’s tie-dyed, social-media frenzying Nike shoes.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing Wolff before all of this: while McIlroy, Johnson and Fowler are among golf’s biggest current celebrities, Wolff is more of an up-and-comer. In 2019, the Californian-turned-Floridian won the NCAA Division 1 Championship (he attended Oklahoma State, where Fowler also went), and later that year, he took home his first PGA Tour victory at the 3M Open. And over the past 24 hours, his profile has gone up significantly—in large part due to his wardrobe selections at Seminole.
As a few online aptly noted, Wolff’s look had a Matt Dillon in There’s Something About Mary-vibe. He had the elongated, down the smile-line mustache. He had the animal-head golf cover. And he wore a pair of all-over tie-dyed Nike Roshe G’s—a footwear flex that, sadly, cannot yet be purchased.
“I’m very open to wearing things that might not be considered so traditional in golf,” Wolff said over the phone from Jupiter, Florida, where he currently lives. “As soon as I landed on the tour, I started to speak with [one of my sponsors, Nike]. I wear bright things. I always talk to them about wearing, like, teal pants, or putting patterns on new items, and making the look more fun.” He doesn’t have a favorite color (Fowler, for example, wears orange for Oklahoma State on the final day of a tournament, and Tiger Woods wears red on Sundays). Instead, Wolff explained, he’s not afraid to go for splashier impacts. “I am definitely not one to shy away from wearing anything that draws attention.”
The psychedelic Nikes—which, according to the sportswear giant, are part of a sixties-era San Francisco-inspired collection called “Peace and Love,” available later this year—kicked-off something of a craze on golf Twitter, which spilled over into general social media. Wolff caught wind of it on the back nine at Seminole, and said, on camera, that he’d auction them off. He ultimately landed on a giveaway concept; donations can be made to his teams’ cause, the CDC Foundation, through Instagram. All donors will be put in a pool, and Wolff will pick a winner (the shoes are size 11). He has decided to extend the drive one more day, through Tuesday evening.
“Confession, though,” he warned: the shoes might be a little funky. “As soon as I said I’d give them away, I thought, maybe I shouldn’t. It was really hot out there. We were sweating. I thought, ‘I’m going to have to spray these 15 times.’”
Eye-catching garb is only part of his game, Wolff said. “Playing with Rickie and DJ and Rory, I felt a bit like… if they don’t play well, no one is going to say they don’t belong out there. If I went out there and didn’t play well, people might have said ‘Why was he playing?’ I still have to prove myself.”
But if Wolff stays on his upward trajectory, it’ll be thanks at least in part to his sartorial adventures. Like Brooks Koepka, another Nike player, Wolff hopes to shake things up in the golf world. “I was kind of going for a younger feeling, with the shoes especially,” he said. “Golf has the associations of being country-clubby, and super traditional with plain colors. I am looking for the clothes to be a little more fun. A little different.”
“It’s not old-fashioned anymore,” he concluded. “I like the idea of going out, wearing whatever you want, and having a great time.”
