Five Fridays from now, we’ll be 18 holes into The Masters.

Let that sink in… we’re getting close.

Welcome to the new readers again this week!

If you know anyone who might like this newsletter, send it their way and encourage them to subscribe!

How the NBA and AND1 relate to the current golf ecosystem.

The AND1 Mixtape phenomenon has come to the world of golf.

For those who have forgotten about AND1, it was a basketball brand that started as a t-shirt company and morphed into a basketball monster. It nearly went broke when its first NBA player, Stephon Marbury, broke his ankle wearing their shoes a week before the shoes hit the market.

So they pivoted to street hoops.

AND1 brought the street game to the masses. It wasn’t about winning or money, and it wasn’t about charging money for attendance and Rucker Park was the center of this ethos.

“Most people realize I might not make D1. I might not make the NBA. But you can still go plat at the playground,” said one of AND1’s founders Tom Austin. “We’re grassroots, we’re everyman basketball. And this is an energy that Nike can’t touch.”

The next boost for AND1. Michael Jordan retiring and the NBA lockout.

The AND1 mixtape was born.

It was on VHS because there was no YouTube.

Flash forward to 2024, and so much of the beats to the AND1 boom can be connected to golf and the YouTube Golf popularity.

The PGA Tour plays the role of the NBA. It is consistently producing lackluster content, yet the game at the recreational level is better than it’s been in history.

Geoff Shackelford wrote an excellent piece in Links Magazine; he argues that pro golf can flounder while the recreational game can explode.

This gap has created space for Good Good, No Laying Up, Bob Does Sports, and others to draw an audience that is hungry to watch golf, even if the golf doesn’t come close to approaching the professional standard.

The NBA had the lockout. Golf had the pandemic.

This YouTube Golf explosion got me thinking about AND1’s popularity in the early 2000s. It was a sensation that began as a Wharton Business School project in 1991. The Wikipedia page is incredible.

The impact AND1 covered has been forgotten, but they infiltrated the NBA inner circle, getting players like Kevin Garnett, Rex Chapman, and Lance Stephenson to wear their stuff. The brand brought a different type of basketball to the masses - Trash talking, mic’d up players, brash playing style. It stood in stark contrast to the late' 90s NBA where the Knicks won games 88-76.

Over time, AND1 became too big for the NBA to ignore. It hosted games and tournaments all over the world and even found its way into the 2015 All-Star Weekend in Brooklyn.

This 2015 moment feels similar to the Myrtle Beach Classic this May, where 16 Golf Influencers will have a chance to qualify for a spot in a PGA Tour event. That’s a pretty wild sentence to type. I checked my spam folder and didn’t see my invite… maybe next year?

AND1 was also a bit of a YouTube behemoth in its heyday. This “Professor” highlight clip has 21 million views.

AND1 had its own set of characters like Skip to My Lou and Hot Sauce, and The Professor (who grew up watching AND1).

He also got 84 million views for this video, where he played 1v1 against a trash talker. Riggs from Fore Play just released a video of a match against an online “Hater.”

Same idea. Different decade.

It’s worth noting that I understand basketball is a far bigger sport than golf, so some of this comparison has to be relative. AND1 was filling basketball arenas; I’m not sure YouTube golfers are filling the 20,000 seats at the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.

AND1’s popularity really hit its peak in the early-to-mid 2000s when Michael Jordan was fading off into the sunset because there wasn’t really anyone to fill the void.

The NBA stunk at that point. Allen Iverson was a star and won the MVP in 2001, dragging a horrendous Philadephia 76ers team to The Finals against the LA Lakers. Kobe Bryant was ascending, too, but overall the league was thin on talent.

This sounds a bit like golf, doesn't it?

Tiger Woods is done as a week-in and week-out player. He was just named Co-chair of the new PGA Tour Enterprises. Jordan became the Vice President of basketball operations as well as a minority owner of the Washington Wizards in January 2000.

In the 2001 NBA Finals, 100 points were cracked four times TOTAL in five games. The Lakers did it three times, and the Sixers did it once. The most points scored was 108 in game 5 by the Lakers.

The NBA is now humming along, bloated with so much talent that they are thinking about expanding into two cities.

In retrospect, this was never a fair fight. The NBA was never going to lose to AND1, but for a while the products were neck-and-neck for eyeballs. AND1 was entertaining and edgy.

So the biggest question for the YouTube Golf folks is what is the infrastructure to maintain momentum because it doesn’t seem like there is one. There wasn’t one for AND1 either, and they are a whisper of what they once were.

Good Good won’t be young and hip forever. All these groups are going to get old. Is the hope that more of the same type of group fill the void with newer content that pushes the limits and doesn’t feel stale?

I’m not sure what the answer to all this is, but I think it’s an apt comparison right now. I am worried about the PGA Tour, it has horrendous leadership, and the talent has been diluted by LIV’s consistent poaching.

The beauty of golf is that when there isn’t any to watch on TV or the Internet, people can go play it, and they can play it in more ways than they ever have before.

I’ll leave you with one more Tom Austin quote, “We owned the heart of the game. They (Nike) don’t want to offend a 50-year-old guy in middle America. They sell to a broad audience. That’s not who we are. We’re selling to core people who are basketball players and know it.”

Double Click(s)

I’m going to use this section to “Double Click” on something I discovered or thought about this week.

On the heels of what I wrote above

Chad Mumm is launching a new golf media company that aims to “connect golf with mainstream culture.” I wasn’t sure how to loop it into my AND1 section, but it feels like an interesting move involving lots of money.

When was the last time Patrick Cantlay had to make a tee time?

I don’t think I’ve seen the sun since 2023, so I’m a touch grumpy this week, and some of my anger is aimed at Patrick Cantlay.

Kyle Porter pulled out the quote below from a Cantlay interview this week at Bay Hill.

The part that really annoyed me was the first line of the second answer: “I think trying to figure out how to appeal to more people, an appeal to more fans, is probably the biggest change that I would like to see.”

When was the last time that Patrick Cantlay had to make a tee time to play a round of golf? When was the last time he had to open his wallet to fork over $120 bucks to play a mediocre course for 6 hours on a Sunday?

Golf appeals to plenty of people right now. Just try to get a tee time at a decent golf course on the weekend.

Merch Table

One way to help support me in my quest to play every course in the Bay State would be to spend a little money on some Bay State Golf swag. I always need gas money! Check it all out here.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

• I started reading Storyworthy this week. It’s about storytelling and how to tell stories. The author, Matthew Dicks, is a Moth Storytelling legend. It’s a great read so far; a lot of good nuggets.

• We’re edging closer to college athletes unionizing. Dartmouth Men’s Hoops pushing the sport in a new direction. I’m not smart enough to understand the long-term implications.

• The Iditarod made news this week because a moose was killed and there are all sorts of rules for that…

• Tony Dear picks the brain of golf sickos and asks them about the best reveals in golf. Got me thinking about some of the best in Massachusetts.

I’m listening to…

• Gave the Tracy Chapman album a listen this week.

• I’ve seen more of the Oscar nominees this year than in years past. The TrapDraw pod goes deep on the movies that were and weren’t nominated. Always a great listen.

I’m eating…

• This One-Pan Feta Pasta with cherry tomatoes is dynamite.

• Had brunch at Brewers Fork in Charlestown this weekend and, like a 10-year-old, enjoyed a sugary waffle.

I’m watching…

• I’m picking my way through Full Swing 2. Might have some thoughts on it next week. Might not have some thoughts on it next week.

• We picked up The Tourist Season 2 this week.

• I watched the The Rise and Fall of AND1 on Netflix. A solid watch.

PLUGS

New stuff:

• Did a 30 min. podcast about courses that have a par under 70. Touched on four of them. Listen here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcasts.

Old stuff: 

I'm (shamelessly) plugging...

• A list of golf courses open in the winter.

• Bay State Picks: Best courses you can walk for less than $60.

• Bay State Picks: Nine-hole courses to play before or after work

• Bay State Picks: 18 public golf that is worth your time

• Bay State Picks: Easy 18-hole public walks

• Bay State Deep Dive: Myopia Hunt Club

   

• "On Course" New England Journal Podcast

  • LISTEN HERE (and subscribe!)

  • WATCH HERE (and subscribe!)

• Amateur Golf Podcast

  • LISTEN HERE (and subscribe!)