Dodging Bunkers: How a Rainy Day on the Wirral Became Off The Tee
It started with the rain
A wet day. A clubhouse on the Wirral. Four hours of heavy rain on the forecast and one of us standing at the club shop, completely unprepared.
There was a 25% discount on, so we bought a jacket. Then we looked at the rest of the rail. The clothes were mundane, and priced for people who did not mind paying for a logo. If you were a social golfer, or younger, or you just wanted to look good walking off the 18th and into the bar, there was nothing for you.
That was the whole business plan. A bad forecast and a dull rail of clothes.
The gap nobody was filling
At one end of golf sit the famous names, at £90, £130, £200 for a polo. At the other end sits the cheap stuff that looks exactly how it is priced.
In between, nothing.
We are a family that is sports mad and loves a good time. We wanted clothes that worked on the course, in the clubhouse, at the barbecue and on the beach. So we made them. Designed in Britain. Technical fabrics. Honest prices.
Starting out
A first collection of polos and caps. A Wirral address. A belief that golf could look better and cost less.
By February 2022 we were trading online with a promise in our bio: dodging bunkers. A few weeks later our Trustpilot page went live with no reviews on it, waiting for a stranger to decide if we were any good.
The community answered
Then the golfers started talking back.
The Holben Golf North West Amateur Tour. Founder Dave Carter approached us to become the tour’s preferred clothing partner. We sponsor the Nearest The Pin prizes, winners take home a £25 OTT voucher, and players can swap their tour points for OTT kit. We have stood on the fairways at places like Lancaster Golf Club asking golfers what they love and what they want next. One answer keeps coming back: the Dark Cherry Hoodie.
Surrey County Golf Association. We sat down with Surrey and designed their junior polos from scratch, from first sketch to swatch to sample to the finished shirt. Seeing juniors walk out in something we made is when this stopped feeling like a side project.
The golf societies. A society planning a trip to Spain in support of Mind asked about our shirts. We branded one so the group could feel the quality for themselves. That shirt sealed the order, we donated to their fundraising page, and a whole society joined the OTT family.
Charity. From the very beginning we have fundraised for the Eden Dora Trust and worked with charities and golf days, because a golf brand should give something back to the game.
What golfers say
We have never written our own reviews. The golfers did.
“Easily better than some of the big names with a lower price point.”
“I have seen these shirts on a number of courses and always admired them from afar.”
One golfer wore our waterproof jacket at Caldy in 65mph winds with rain coming from every direction, and told the world it kept him dry and warm. A club that ordered branded kit wrote that we re-did two shirts they were happy with, because we were not, and sent two extra free of charge.
That is 36 reviews and a 4.8 on Trustpilot, most of them unprompted.
Five and a half years in
Anyone who has run an independent brand knows the pressure points. The quiet weeks. The next collection that has to land. The big names with the bigger budgets. The fact that the community that carried you here has to be earned again with every order.
We are still here because we kept showing up: on the fairways, at golf days, and in the inbox when a size is wrong or a parcel is late.
What comes next
Around 70 products now, from sharp polos and bold colours to a full weather system built for British rain. Counties, clubs and societies come to us for bespoke collections in their own colours.
Next we want to be a British golf brand people ask for by name. A new collection shaped by the golfers who wear it. More county partnerships. More golf days. More strangers asking someone on the course where that shirt came from.
It began with rain and a boring rail of clothes. Wherever the game takes us, we will be the ones wearing it differently.
Off The Tee. Dodging bunkers since day one.
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