HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA | Jackets – some might call them sport coats or blazers – were a topic of discussion at the RBC Heritage last week, and not just because Jon Rahm brought his new green one from the Masters.
Rahm didn’t parade the latest addition to his wardrobe around the island and said he intends to check with Augusta National officials before he wears the jacket anywhere while he has it off-property for one year.
Phil Mickelson got the message that wearing his green jacket through a Krispy Kreme drive-through line and posting a photo of it wasn’t in keeping with Masters tradition. Other green jacket winners have been reminded that it’s not to be worn with denim.
During the tournament-opening ceremonies Tuesday not far from the famous red-and-white-striped lighthouse that watches over Harbour Town, defending champion Jordan Spieth and five-time champion Davis Love III, who is this year’s honorary chairman, wore their red plaid jackets that come with winning the RBC Heritage.
It’s a cool thing even if the bold plaid is a little much for some tastes.
“I feel like in our sport you can’t have too many jackets, so try and get more.”
Jordan Spieth
The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, awards the winner a similar-looking plaid jacket, and Spieth has won both of them.
“They're both special in their own right, but I feel like in our sport you can't have too many jackets, so try and get more,” Spieth said.
Love got a new jacket this year, having lost the ones he won when his house burned to the ground a few years ago. Tournament director Steve Wilmot had a new trophy made for Love, recognizing his five wins at Harbour Town.
“One thing I was missing was a plaid jacket,” Love said. “The first thing when he said would you be the honorary chairman, I said, ‘Yeah, can I get a jacket?’ ”
Winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational receive a red cardigan, an homage to the great man himself. It’s a proper prize for the tournament, but considering the late Palmer’s preference for pink golf shirts, that would have been fitting as well.
Not to worry, because there are plenty of those for sale in the Bay Hill clubhouse in Orlando, Florida.
Times have changed, and fashion has, too. We live in what increasingly feels like a “no jacket required” world.
Nevertheless, a jacket can say a lot about a person.
Especially the green ones and the red plaid ones.
Ron Green Jr.
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Top photo: Giovanna Graf, EyeEm/Getty Images