With the 2023 Ryder Cup looming, both Team USA and Team Europe have gotten some advance scouting in at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. They’ve also been loading up on pasta and vino, according to one team-dinner photo.
While the rest of the guys wore drab, solid colors (and Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Max Homa missed the memo about wearing hats indoors), 2018 captain and 2023 vice captain Jim Furyk dared to be different, donning a garment as sacred to American Ryder Cup players and fans as the Shroud of Turin: the golf shirt in which the Yanks authored their epic Sunday Singles comeback in 1999.
An amazing meal in Rome to close out an unforgettable trip 🙏
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 10, 2023
(& an unforgettable @jimfuryk fit 👀) pic.twitter.com/rARxdArORh
Despite its association with an all-time triumph, the shirt (nicknamed simply “The Shirt” to those in the know) was ridiculed - Tiger Woods tossed his in a fireplace - for years as one of the most hideous fashion choices in golf history, perhaps so ugly it had some ironic charm, at best.
But time has a way of turning the garish glorious. Take a look in your local pro shop or spend 10 minutes scrolling Instagram and you’ll encounter a dozen brands whose shirt patterns make Furyk’s regalia look refined. These days, loud prints and patterns adorn countless bro-golfers at every course from here to Hirono.
If you want to channel the ’99 Ryder Cup in the coming weeks, golf-bro fashion brand Royal & Awesome will sell you their Brookline Polo for $39.99, with the same general layout but some different photos subbed in to avoid any copyright infringement. Or perhaps the 1990s shopping mall drinking cup look is more your style?
