The Monterey was born out of a trip I probably could not afford, but could not afford not to take.

In the summer of 2024, a good friend invited me to Monterey, and I said yes before my brain could talk me out of it. We rode bikes down 17 Mile Drive, breathed in the Pacific, and played Spyglass. And then it happened. You take that hard left off the first fairway at Spyglass and the world shifts. The golf does not feel built. It feels revealed. Like it was always there, just waiting to be found.

That idea is stitched into this hat. The word GOLF, filled with golf holes inside the letters, is a nod to the way the game lives on the land in Monterey. Laid gently on top of it, never forced.

The name carries another quiet thread too. The first hat of this style I ever sold was in the parking lot of Tobacco Road, a course shaped by Mike Strantz’s imagination. Years earlier, Strantz worked on the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course renovation, one of his final contributions to the game. Oddly enough, my first ever high school golf match in seventh grade ended with a chip in on number ten at Caledonia. Mike’s first design and my first match, a moment that would go on to incubate the passion I have for golf today. It is hard not to be romantic about golf.

This hat is not about chasing perfection. It is about the moments that stay with you long after the round is over. The feeling that you were lucky enough to be there at all.

The Monterey