The Public Restoration Project: A Preview

Course logos are a common language among golfers. If you walk through an airport, you’ll often catch sight of a handful of private-club emblems: the Winged Foots, the Merions, the Cypress Points. On the public side, logos for high-end resorts like Whistling Straits, Pebble Beach, and Bandon Dunes get a lot of play. Some interpret this as a form of bragging, but I see it differently. When passionate golfers visit an aspirational place, sometimes they just feel moved to buy a keepsake. I do so myself, when I can.

Yet the courses that resonate with me most are not usually represented on hats or quarter-zips. Rather, they’re the ones doing the toughest thing in golf: offering a great experience at a rate that the masses can afford. These are the logos I want to wear, the businesses I want to support with my money. They’re the places that make golf go.

When you’re in the pro shop at an affordable course, however, it can be tough to find a fashionable hat or piece of clothing. Which is understandable. At such courses, the focus is often on matters more important than merch. Their budgets and their staff’s time and effort are devoted to running a successful and accessible golf course, not to designing a slick logo.

This fact became clear to me two years ago, when PGA Tour pro Zac Blair and I conducted Logo Madness, a competition to determine the best course logo in golf. It was good, clean fun, and Merion beat out Winged Foot for the win. But my main takeaway was how few public courses with green fees under $200 had logos worthy of making the field of 64. In fact, I can’t remember any.

So this year, Zac Blair and The Fried Egg are teaming up in pursuit of a bigger goal. We’re turning Logo Madness into the Public Restoration Project, an effort to redesign the logos of excellent, affordable golf courses in the United States. The logos will be featured on merchandise sold through The Fried Egg website. One-hundred percent of the proceeds generated from the sale of each course’s merchandise will go toward an improvement project at that course. It will be an opportunity to give back to a variety of wonderful golf facilities.

In the coming weeks, we will announce our first partner course for the Public Restoration Project, along with details about the new logo and the work that the merchandise will support. We’re excited about this endeavor, and we hope you are, too. We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!