MANORS Is Reinventing How to Build a Golf Community
The UK brand is tying together events and content with apparel to build one of the most well-rounded labels in the game.
It’s late March at Nairn Golf Club, where a steady 40 miles per hour wind just ratcheted up to 50 as dark clouds moved in. Playing with three others, we turn our backs to the elements to protect our eyes from the driving rain. “Welcome to Scotland,” belts out our seasoned caddie in a heavy brogue. Within minutes it’s sunny again, and it’s time to play on.
We’re on a trip with MANORS, a rising golf apparel brand based in the UK, along with a group of twenty or so content creators, actors, athletes and tastemakers. MANORS has been around since 2019, but underwent a major rebranding last year that saw a shift from vintage and lifestyle to cutting edge and technical. As co-founder Jojo Regan explains, it’s sort of like Arc’teryx and Palace had a baby, then introduced it to golf. The Scottish Highlands 2024 trip, which had us play two world-renowned courses while staying at Marine & Lawn’s 5-star Dornoch Station hotel, is the second kind of these events the brand has hosted since it re-launched in March 2023. This is no small feat for a rising label. But these, along with other in-person events, are part of a larger strategy to cultivate an already close-knit community both around the UK and internationally.
Joshua Coates
Joshua Coates
Joshua Coates
Joshua Coates
Joshua Coates
Similar to how golf fashion became repetitive and uninspired over the years, only to be rescued by challengers like Malbon, Metalwood and indeed MANORS, influencer brand events and activations have also adopted a cookie cutter feel these days. Go to enough of them and you’ll begin to identify a repeating cast of characters. At face value, MANORS’ Scottish escapades might end up lumped together with similar company. But first and foremost, what makes MANORS’ events special are the people.
Take Josh Park for example, a golf instructor based in Los Angeles, or Adem Wahbi, a disabled golfer who competes in adaptive tournaments. Both have become fixtures in the brand’s seasonal campaigns and are a reflection of what MANORS is trying to create. “We want people to see MANORS as a serious golf brand,” says Alex Ames, the brand’s marketing director. “Not in the sense that you have to be a scratch golfer or that you have to play on tour. It’s serious in the way a mountain climber takes mountain climbing seriously. The experience means a lot to them even if it’s just for fun and the clothes must perform accordingly.”
“It’s not about hitting straight drives, it’s about the adventure that takes you to all these different places.” – Jojo Regan, MANORS co-founder
Everything comes back to the MANORS rebrand and its transition away from knitwear to performance garments. This may seem like a leap of faith considering the lifestyle push of others occupying a similar underdog position, but Jojo Regan firmly believes that the brand is now better positioned for long term success. “The way we were before, we were essentially a niche within a niche, golf lifestyle. We took a look at the market and what we determined is that it really wants performance.”
That’s what makes the brand’s association with Mac Boucher, who has now attended both of MANORS’ Scottish adventures, feel all the more authentic. The lefty’s signature “slingers” may rack up unfathomable numbers of views on Instagram, but he can also play some serious golf. As the legend goes, Boucher came up to Scotland a few days before this year’s event to play a few warm up games, and started with a flurry of birdies and eagles before turning around to the other side of the plate to play right handed.
“We’re able to call up Mac and say ‘look we’re doing this event in Scotland, we’d love you to come,’” adds Ames. “We’re able to ask the Holland brothers to take time out of a packed schedule to come here because we know they will have an awesome time.”
Harvey Jamison
Harvey Jamison
Harvey Jamison
Harvey Jamison
Harvey Jamison
There’s also a self-serving element to the events: content creation. Within a matter of a few days, supported by a team of photographers and videographers, the brand has stockpiled enough reels and high quality stills to last until its next event. And that’s not even taking into consideration the amount of earned media the brand will get from its invitees, all of whom have large and dedicated followings across Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and elsewhere.
Compared with its peers, no other brand is making a bigger content play than MANORS. The in-house team of Luke Davies, the brand’s co-founder and creative director, and James Wilson, a former pro golfer who recently came on board as creative strategist and is quickly becoming the face of MANORS, can be credited with that. Most of the content features tastemakers in and adjacent to golf, positioning MANORS as an aspirational brand and building anticipation around its open-access events.
Next month, similar to how it did last year, MANORS will host a ticketed event at a local London course called Pyrford Lakes where members of the community will rub elbows with high profile actors, comedians and online personalities. Two different types of events with two different approaches, but ultimately landing at the same outcome, fostering a deeper connection with people through providing them memorable experiences.
“With our Scottish Highlands trip, there’s an asset list that Luke wants to hit, there’s a strategy around what we think we’re going to test and what we’re going to put out in the world, and so it’s with people that are pretty comfortable being in front of a camera,” says Regan. “With events like our Pyrford Lakes Masters Invitational, that’s much more about being able to interact with the community and give anyone an opportunity to come play golf, interact with us and the brand and have fun. So this trip to Scotland I’d say is an activation, and Pyrford Lakes is an event. But they’re both physical things in real life with real people.”
Doug Guillot
Doug Guillot
Doug Guillot
Doug Guillot
Doug Guillot
There’s a third way for people to get involved with MANORS’ experiences: its online sweepstakes. Through signing up for the brand’s newsletters, people can win all expenses paid trips to stay and play destinations throughout the UK. So whether they’re a guest at one of MANORS’ invitationals or its ticketed events, the idea is that the brand has won an admirer for life. Over the two days in Scotland during late March, the adverse conditions threatened to put a damper on the mood. But when you’re in good company, it all just becomes part of the story you tell at the 19th hole.
“Today, Ovie said to me that it was one of the best days of his life,” says Regan again. “He shot 97, he’s a 24 handicap and it was absolute mental weather, but he’s like ‘I’ll never forget that we were laughing the whole time. We were fist pumping, we were drinking beers with the caddie.’”
That gets back to the philosophy of the brand: that golf is a game to be explored, and that you don’t need to have a low handicap to glean all of its benefits.
Over a few pints post round in Dornoch Station’s stately bar, Regan makes a fitting observation: “We’re all just average golfers when you compare us to the professionals, yet we are the ones having the most fun. And coming back to MANORS, there’s a reason these lines in the logo are wonky because it’s not about hitting straight drives, it’s about the adventure that takes you to all these different places.”
