Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the Monday morning gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.
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For Casey Duryee, TaylorMade’s product manager of accessories, the goal for every major championship staff bag is simple: Create something that celebrates the area where the major is being contested. And make it a conversation piece.
Last year, TaylorMade trotted out arguably its most ambitious creation to date at the U.S. Open — a staff bag featuring a tea-stained appearance and creative “Easter eggs” honoring Boston’s rich history. The bag was a mega-hit with TaylorMade staffers and regular golfers who managed to get their hands on the limited-edition piece.
“Our goal is to get the consumers, golfer and even our internal team excited about the majors,” Duryee told GOLF.com. “I think everyone looks forward to a major week, and we hope the bags, headcovers and whatever else we release add a little something special to the event.”
Internally, the staff bag raised the bar in terms of creativity and innovation to a new level for TaylorMade’s accessories team. It also led the group to ponder an important question: Where do we go from here?
Behind the scenes, TaylorMade already had an idea of where they wanted to go with the 2023 U.S. Open staff bag. With the Open being contested at famed Los Angeles Country Club, Duryee and team figured it was the perfect opportunity to “go big.” But with a myriad of ideas on the board, the difficulty wasn’t coming up with enough themes. It was finding the right ones to bring the city to life on a blank (staff bag) canvas.
“Los Angeles poses its own set of challenges,” Duryee said. “There are so many things that make LA iconic — and I’m not just talking about from a golf perspective. There’s the food, beach, film and music. All this stuff. There was a room full of ideas when we started designing this bag two years ago, but you have to narrow down the scope because you only have so much space on a golf bag.”
Instead of leaning on the internal accessories team to find inspiration, TaylorMade went outside its Carlsbad, Calif. walls and tapped native Angeleno James Haunt to assume the lead design role. The visual artist and designer made a name for himself in the graffiti scene that led to eventual projects with Nike, Red Bull, Porsche, Google, ESPN and Budweiser.
“We knew this bag needed to scream LA in a way that was unique,” Duryee said. “We felt the best way to do that was to collaborate with someone who lives and breathes LA every day. I don’t think we crack the top 5 in the companies [James has] worked with. There are some massive brands on his resume. He’s not a golfer, but I think that’s what made this project even better. We got to see this through the lens of someone who loves the area and knows what it’s about.”
Haunt, who grew up in the inner city and didn’t take up golf until recently through a friend, was only a few months into learning the game when an e-mail from TaylorMade popped up in his inbox about a future collaboration project.
“I had to call my friend, Brett, and tell him we were going to do a project with TaylorMade,” Haunt recalled. “We were both kind of beside ourselves. It was a bridge to two different worlds. I’m so happy it randomly came to be that TaylorMade knocked on my door.”
TaylorMade typically allows two years lead time to bring major staff bags to life — the lead time is longer than a TaylorMade driver or iron — but with Haunt leading the creative side, sample bags started coming out at a clip the likes of which they’d never experienced in the past.
Instead of three iterations, TaylorMade went through six before landing on the final version of the 2023 U.S. Open staff bag. There was even a moment when TaylorMade considered if it was worth going away from the conventional design process and pursuing a five-figure bag.
“Each bag got a little bit better,” Duryee said. “If we had more time, we could’ve made 10 and kept pushing it. But we do have a pencils-down moment where we need to make sure we have a bag on hand for the tournament. We try to live within a price point that’s reasonable. But there was a point with this one where we wondered if we should just make the ultimate LA bag and sell it for $10k. Not because we think we can sell it for that, but because it’s worth that much.”
In the end, they decided on a Haunt-designed creation that blends the “vibrant” with the “gritty.”
“I enjoy the beauty and creativity that LA has allowed me to experience throughout the years,” Haunt said. “That has lent itself to my art. LA has a bit of a gritty side, but it also has a vibrant side. With my art, it tells the same story. There’s an aggressive grit to it, but there’s also a bright, vibrant poppiness to it.”
While most pros will be getting their first look at the bag this week, two-time major winner Collin Morikawa, an Angeleno native, received a sneak peek in advance. His response? “I wish we got it on camera,” Duryee said. “It was a holy s— moment for sure. When the rest of our guys see it, it’s going to be the same. I’m sure of it.”
One quick look at the bag and it’s easy to see why Morikawa fell in love with Haunt’s creation. The multi-material creation combines patent leather (upper and base), TPR (rubber) for a 3D effect and chenille patching (the Los Angeles logo) for a textured look that’s unlike anything TaylorMade has created in the past. Each side panel features a different image — the LA skyline on one side and a picturesque sunset on the other. And then there’s the one-of-a-kind zipper pulls featuring some of the most well-known streets in and around LA.
There’s more, of course. The “Easter eggs” dotting this particular bag are special; it’s one of the many reasons Duryee believes this year’s U.S. Open bag will live up to the hype — and then some.
“I anticipate everyone is expecting us to do a bag with a beach or food scene,” said Duryee. “When they see what we came up with they’re going to say, Wait a second… where did this come from? It’s incredibly cool. In my opinion, it’s going to make an already great week even better. It’s a piece of art in every sense.”
It’s a piece of art Duryee believes could be destined for his home. While he’s not the sentimental type, the former assistant pro at Torrey Pines Golf Course confirmed he only has two major staff bags from his time at TaylorMade on display in his home from the 2008 U.S. Open and 2021 U.S. Open. Both were played at Torrey Pines. But after seeing the final product for this year’s U.S. Open, he admitted it might be time to make room for another bag.
“This might be the third addition,” he said. “I normally don’t like to get overly excited about these bags because I’m never quite sure how they’ll be received, but this was the first one where I knew it was going to be mindblowing,”
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