For a pro golfer, transferring gear — clubs, training aids, snacks and whatever else they stuff inside the pockets — from one staff bag to the next ranks right up there with undergoing a root canal or an afternoon at the DMV. No one enjoys the process.
“It’s tedious,” says Collin Morikawa. “But there are weeks where you don’t mind moving things around.” One of those weeks occurs in April when the sports world shifts its gaze toward Augusta National and the Masters.
When Morikawa earned a spot in the 2020 field, he soon found out it came with a unique perk: custom TaylorMade “Season Opener” gear (they can’t use the name Masters, for obvious reasons) to celebrate the event, including a one-of-a-kind green-and-white staff bag.
“The bag is a way to remember the event and the fact you played well enough to make the field,” Morikawa says. “I still remember receiving my first staff bag for the tournament with my name on it. It was special.”
For roughly two decades, TaylorMade has celebrated golf’s four major championships with staff bags designed around the history of the event and the venue. It’s easy to look at these bespoke beauties and assume they’re whipped up in a matter of weeks.
In reality, the creation process starts 20 months prior — a near three-year cycle with various stages of design and input from a sizable ideation group. Sometimes the product hits after one sample; other times it takes numerous revisions before the final version is greenlighted.
“There’s never a direction going into the creation process,” says Alex Criscuolo, TaylorMade senior designer. “It’s a blank canvas. I think that’s what makes it fun. We’re given this opportunity to push the envelope and see what sticks.”
TaylorMade’s major bags have become so coveted, in fact, that additional pieces are created for the retail market. It’s golf’s version of a limited sneaker drop.
“They go incredibly quick,” says Casey Duryee, TaylorMade’s product manager of accessories. “For us, our job is to create a GEAR bag that tells a story and gets someone excited. We want the consumer of this to want this bag. Not because they want to resell it for a profit, but because they have an emotional tie to it. My goal is to make something for that person.”
In recent years, TaylorMade’s Masters staff bags have been loosely based on the white jumpsuit caddies are required to wear during the tournament, with hidden Easter eggs dotting the outside and interior paneling that make each one special. Some of those “eggs” have included the yardages for all 18 holes at Augusta National on the bag’s base, Masters concession prices and azalea-colored pockets.
“It takes a village to get these products done,” Duryee says. “It touches every part of this company, at some point, during the creation process. Everyone thinks it’s just a staff bag in different colors, but it’s not. We create something that’s similar to the sneaker world where everyone waits to see what’s going to drop around the majors.”
