Bogey Boys Ben

BY BOB SHERWIN • CG STAFF WRITER

How did he get here? How did Macklemore, who admits to a destructive and addictive lifestyle growing up on Seattle’s inner-city streets, become a rapper with world-acclaimed hits and a slew of Grammy awards on his mantle?

Talent. Yes. He can sing. He can compose. He can stir an audience. But there’s more. There must be more for a guy, born as Ben Haggerty, who matriculated through Garfield and Nathan Hale High Schools.

It takes passion, irrepressible passion. He had to overcome the novelty of being a white rapper to prove he’s legit. He had to battle his self-confessed addiction to drugs and alcohol, honestly incorporating his struggles, even his relapses, into his music. He had to press on even when his long performances were short of people.

He did it while taking on seemingly un-rappable, socially-conscious subjects like addiction (‘Starting Over’), gay marriage (‘Same Love’) and wanton consumerism (‘Wings’).

His wife, Tricia, who has stood by him and supported him through all his rises and falls for more than 15 years, is the beneficiary of Haggerty’s extraordinary passion and dedication. The couple, married in 2015, now share their lives with their three children — two girls, Colette and Sloane, and newborn son Hugo.

Seattle also has benefitted from his passion, especially its thrift stores and sports teams. Haggerty, as Macklemore, and music collaborator Ryan Lewis have performed in front of Mariners crowds since Ichiro was still a BlueWave. He wrote a charitable song (‘My Oh My’) dedicated to the late great team broadcaster, Dave Niehaus. He gave the Seahawks a private concert in 2014. The Seattle Sounders added him to its soccer ownership group in 2019 and this spring the Seattle Kraken brought him into its hockey ownership group. He has emerged as Seattle’s favored son.

But how did he get here? How did a rapper find his way into a Northwest regional golf magazine? It’s no secret. It’s the same traits — the passion and indefatigable personality that carried him to the No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Best New Artist in 2014 also brought him to his first tee. He took up the game in 2017 and threw himself into it, as he is prone to do. He joined two local country clubs. His handicap has dropped to 11. This February, he was good enough to play as a celebrity partner with PGA Tour professional Lanto Griffin at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

And, as we’ve come to realize with any Ben Haggerty pursuit, he doesn’t just take something on, he envelops it in a way that doesn’t deny who he is or where he’s from. His fascination with golf has taken him back to his old Capitol Hill neighborhood, bricks and mortar.

This spring, Five Iron Golf, which specializes in indoor golf entertainment centers around the country, opened its first West Coast location at 1125 11th Ave. on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Haggerty is the co-owner of the 12,000-squarefoot facility that features 12 TrackMan golf simulators.

It caters to the casual golf fan and, basically, anything casual. No pretenses. No pretensions. Come as you are. Folks hit golf balls into a large flat screen that records not only swing speeds and hitting angles but shows where the balls end up on an animated golf course. You can play for improvement, entertainment or even for a coin or crypto in friendly competitions and environments.

Haggerty, who is the Five Iron brand ambassador, likes the idea of making golf more accessible and less staid.

“It doesn’t matter if you never played golf before or if you’re a scratch golfer, Five Iron’s mission is all about getting more people involved in the game,” Haggerty said in promoting the opening. “I love having them in my city and I’m excited to work with the team to grow the game.”

He’d also love to have all those coming into Five Iron looking good, something that has taken the Seattle rapper into uncharted territory in the golf world. Through his golf apparel company — Bogey Boys which he started two years ago — Haggerty has turned modern golf fashion into a Wayback Machine with throwback styles from the 1970s and 80s.

He loves the timeless style of, among others, the always elegantly dressed Arnold Palmer. His designs mix plaids, stripes, checkerboard and tartan prints with bold colors. He has become an instant icon, sort of the Pierre Cardigan of golf fashion.

Some designs might remind folks of the late Doug Sanders who was often called The Peacock of the Fairways because of his colorful shirts and pink, purple and pumpkin pants.

Haggerty’s apparel line opened for business in February of 2021. Sales have been so encouraging that he opened his first store Sept. 18 on Seattle’s Capitol Hill — 1523 10th Ave. — not far from Five Iron. It is appropriately located in the Goose Magees Vintage Mall as a thrift store occupies the bottom level.

Another Seattle icon — Nordstrom — features his Bogey Boys apparel at two locations. In his own lyrical way, Haggerty composed a promotion video for his Bogey Boys business to appeal to the above-par golfer.

This is for us For the golfer tired of going into a pro shop And coming out looking like everyone else For those who have a bigger imagination than a pair of khakis and a plain polo For the golfer who’s aware that they’ll never play like a pro But is certain they can dress better than most of them For the golfer who aspires to par But knows bogey isn’t bad either.

When he launched the brand, Haggarty told Golf Digest, “I’ve always loved old school golf fashion, even before I was paying attention to the sport itself. How (golfers) were dressing in the 1970s and 80s — those outfits were fire compared to what’s on the PGA Tour or in an everyday pro shop now.”

You won’t see any PGA Tour golfers working the Bogey Boys brand around Tour events, not yet anyway. It’s not because they don’t like his style. They do. He’s sent many of them gift boxes full of Bogey Boy hats, gloves, shirts and cardigans and they’ve praised his vintage vision. But they can’t publicly comment or display them because they are bound by long-standing and lucrative golf industry apparel contracts. That could change with industry shifts.

“I don’t want to just have a quick moment here,” he told Forbes Magazine in March 2021. “We are building a sustainable brand. We want to build with people that want to look dope on a golf course, that want to help grow the game, that are like-minded and love the sport and our style of clothing. The 70-80’s golf era is what the brand is inspired by, but we also want to bring people together.”

Haggerty’s journey has been full of doglegs, hazards, and blind shots. It may have been a circuitous and atypical journey but talent, determination and his passion have got him here. The old-school new guy is setting up the course with revised fashion standards.

How long can it last? Who can tell? But as Haggerty and his team might say, “the ceiling can’t hold us”.