The good Texas golf brands are makers rather than marketers — a silversmith, a knitter, a pair of machine shops — which is the reason to run them together. The bar is narrow on purpose: founded in Texas, and still based in Texas. That cuts the brands putting a longhorn on a hat from an office in California, and it cuts the companies that opened a Dallas warehouse and started calling themselves Texan.
Sixteen clear it, and they have startlingly little in common. Clint Orms has been hand-engraving silver in Kerrville since 1992 and will not reproduce more than ten pieces from any one design. Ally Aiken painted a course map for her husband in 2020 and now has hundreds of courses in the catalogue. Harry and Zach wrap leather grips in Conroe as a father-and-son shop, Scott Matthews left investment banking in New York for Dallas over a polyester polo, and Mike Taylor and John Hatfield came off the Nike payroll on a Friday and opened Artisan in the same Fort Worth building on the Monday.
That last one is the closest thing to a pattern. When Nike left the golf equipment business in 2016 it left behind a ten-thousand-square-foot building in Fort Worth and a group of people who knew how to grind a wedge, and two of the best club shops in the country grew out of the vacancy. P53 leases its space in that same building from Marty Leonard, whose father Marvin built Colonial. Ben Hogan is buried in the city. The metal work clusters where it does for a reason.
One distinction matters in the apparel section: designed in Texas and made in Texas are not the same claim. Criquet designs at its Clubhouse in Austin and prints made in Peru on the Players Shirt. Artisan prints made in Fort Worth on the building. Both are fine, and the good ones say which is which on the product page.
Clubs · Fort Worth, Spring, Rockport, Austin, PlanoTexas builds golf clubs for an unromantic reason: when Nike left the equipment business in 2016 it left behind a building in Fort Worth and a group of people who knew how to grind a wedge. A named person touches every club before it ships.
Apparel · Austin, Dallas, New BraunfelsGolf apparel is the easiest category to start a brand in and the hardest to stay in, which is why the span runs from Criquet in 2010 to Juniper & James last summer. Most are designed in Texas and sewn somewhere else, and the good ones say so on the product page.
Accessories · Conroe, Dallas, KerrvilleThese are the parts of the game you actually hold, and two of the three are hand-work in the literal sense — a silversmith engraving a marker, a father and son wrapping a grip. All three are small enough that an order goes past a person rather than a system.
Makers · AustinTwo people make things by hand and sell them, which is a different business from running a brand. Both started with a gift for a family member, which is how a surprising amount of this ends up beginning.
Several, and in more categories than people expect. Clubs and metal: Artisan Golf and P53 in Fort Worth, Piretti in Spring, Edison Golf in Rockport, Lamb Crafted in Plano. Leather and silver: BestGrips in Conroe, Chipp Golf Co in Dallas, Clint Orms in Kerrville. Apparel: Criquet and Sierra Madre in Austin, Olydoe and Kingfisher in Dallas, Juniper & James in New Braunfels. Individual makers: AustinKnittyLimits and Ally Aiken Design, both in Austin.
Because Nike was. Nike built its golf clubs in a facility in Fort Worth and exited the equipment business in 2016, which released a building and a group of experienced club builders into the same city. Artisan Golf was founded by two former Nike craftsmen, Mike Taylor and John Hatfield, in February 2017 and works out of the former Nike golf club facility. P53’s Christopher Griffin leases space at Leonard Golf Links, in the building Nike used, from Marty Leonard — daughter of Marvin Leonard, who founded Colonial.
Artisan grinds and finishes every club in Fort Worth. Edel hand-finishes its putters in Austin. P53 forges in the Pacific Northwest but does all machining, grinding and finishing in Fort Worth. Piretti mills in the United States. Lamb Crafted machines in Plano. BestGrips states designed and made in Texas. Clint Orms engraves by hand in Texas. On the apparel side it is mostly design here, sewing elsewhere — Criquet prints made in Peru on the Top-Shelf Players Shirt, and Sierra Madre’s All Square Skort is Peruvian cotton.
Mike Taylor and John Hatfield, both former Nike employees. Hatfield has given the exact date: February 17, 2017 was their last day on the Nike payroll, and on Monday February 20 they walked in the same door and started Artisan. Taylor was Nike’s model maker for irons and wedges; Hatfield built putters. Wedges are ground by Taylor personally and can only be ordered after an in-person fitting in Fort Worth.
Ben Hogan’s 1953 season. Hogan won the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship that year, and the Fort Worth connection is direct — Hogan is the city’s golfing patron saint. Founder Christopher Griffin left Microsoft in 2012 to start the company. Irons are sold privately, each client is invited to Fort Worth to be fitted in person.
In Austin. Edel’s own product pages state it plainly: The Brick is precision-milled in the U.S.A. from premium stainless steel and hand-finished in Austin, Texas, and the E-T01 is machined in the U.S.A. from premium carbon steel then hand-painted and assembled in Austin. Their wording is that each head is individually painted, polished and built by their master craftsmen. The brand was founded by David Edel and is known for fitting putters the way most fitters approach irons.
AustinKnittyLimits hand-knits retro striped driver and fairway wood covers in Austin, sold in sets of three for around ninety-five dollars with putter covers at about thirty-five. Lamb Crafted in Plano makes leather headcovers alongside its putters and engraved accessories. Both are small operations, so stock moves and custom work is usually possible if you ask.
Clint Orms Engravers & Silversmiths, now on Water Street in Kerrville. Orms started the business in Dallas in 1992, moved to Houston, and settled in the Hill Country. Everything is solid sterling silver and gold, hand-engraved, and he holds a rule of never reproducing more than ten pieces from a single design. His buckles are named after Texas counties and his client list includes Ben Crenshaw and Nolan Ryan.
Sierra Madre Golf in Austin, founded by Bonny Riddle and Michelle Anderson, is the most established — built-in bras, functional pockets, and an elastic glove loop on the All Square Skort, now stocked in select Golf Galaxy locations. Kingfisher Golf in Dallas, founded by Fiona Cohen, is newer and smaller, and started on a kitchen counter in East Dallas with a sewing machine and thrift-store fabric.
It depends what you want. For a shirt you will wear off the course, Criquet’s Players Shirt is the obvious first purchase and has been for sixteen years. For something you will keep, a Clint Orms sterling ball marker or a set of BestGrips leather grips will outlast most of your bag. For clubs, Artisan is the one you travel for — but you have to go to Fort Worth to be fitted, so treat it as a trip rather than a transaction.
