Subtle Patriot

The discovery of Subtle Patriot has me thinking about Veteran’s Day and how many golf apparel/accessory companies support the military in various ways. Founder Tom Gocke grew up in a military family and played a prominent role in OGIO and Callaway before launching Subtle Patriot with a primary mission to provide “artistically understated, best-in-class patriotic work, travel, golf, sport shooting and lifestyle collections.”  The golf line includes bags as well as “covert” hats and headcovers. Subtle Patriot’s second mission is to hire vets and tertiary mission is to financially support NS2 Serves “Boots to Suits” program. This is an impressive addition to the military support of the golf industry.

The Veteran Golfers Association has more than 250 tournaments a year. The VGA is dedicated to enriching the lives of Veterans and their family members through camaraderie and sportsmanship of golf. The VGA National Championship was just held at The Greenbrier and the 2020 Championship will be held at Doral in Miami. Thanks to industry sponsors like Bettinardi, Ship Sticks, Cleveland Golf, Greg Norman, Zero Friction and TopGolf where fashions are a sideshow to the experience. Butch Harmon is among the prominent, proud supporters. Also sponsoring is the Veteran owned Dogleg Belts. Click here to learn more about the VGA and how you can join, or support!

VGA National Championship @ The Greenbrier

The golf industry is a haven for veteran employees as well as players. Female veteran Rebecca Milner founded Epoch Eyeware with her husband Bret while still serving in the Colorado National Guard.

It is heartwarming to see patriotism displayed on the golf course with red, white and blue apparel designs like Antigua’s Patriot shirt and coming this spring, their Liberty shirts for men and women. Antigua’s patriotic apparel sales by PGA pros contributes to PGA Hope (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) which introduces golf to Veterans with disabilities, to enhance their physical, mental, social and emotional well-being. Antigua will also donate around 2500 cold weather apparel to various Veteran groups for project “Keep them Warm” in Prescott, Yuma, Flagstaff, Tucson and Phoenix as they have since the event began.

Loudmouth has plenty of stars and stripes in their designs for patriotic golfers and camo prints are popular in multiple hues by numerous vendors including Golftini. Jack Grace USA has stars and stripes interchangeable saddles for their most comfortable and rainproof golf shoes.

So many professionals, companies and players support Folds of Honor, too many to list in this article. Let’s salute all those listed and missed (not on purpose), who give to a Veteran cause or give us patriotic apparel choices and most of all, let’s salute and hug our Veterans this Veteran’s day/week and always.