Editor's letter

Golf Digest, Oct, 2002 by Jerry Tarde

Here's a story of how golf fashion trickles down from Tiger Woods to your clothes closet. Back in the mid-1990s, when the PGA Tour came to Phoenix, some players stayed in The Phoenician hotel, where there is a specialty shop called Saddlebags. Justin Leonard and others admired the ornate, handmade belt buckles sold there, and a mini-trend on tour gathered momentum. Marty Hackel, a man of some note in the fashion world and now Golf Digest's Fashion Director, took a particular interest in one silver buckle ("a practical, universal style you could wear with anything") that designer Randall Moore began calling The Hackel. It was this belt buckle that Tiger Woods bought and exposed with his forearm upper thrusts. Golfers everywhere began paying more attention to what held up their pants, and today there is not a self-respecting golf shop in America that doesn't have a belt stand with wonderful copies of The Hackel for less than $75.

Marty now thinks the trend may have gone a bit far--"Some of these pros look like they came from the rodeo finals," he says--but style consciousness has never been higher throughout golf.

A distinguished career in the fashion business and a low handicap led Marty to his new role at Golf Digest. He was formerly a senior executive at Neiman-Marcus, consultant to Alfred Dunhill of London, president of Filofax North America and president of Alexander Julian. Now as Mr. Style for The Golf Digest Companies, Marty is charged with overseeing the style and fashion content of our magazines and writing service pieces like his new column that begins on page 50. No wonder Playing Editor Ernie Els won the British Open this year--that's Marty giving him a custom-fit.

Jerry Tarde, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief