HOW TWO
GOLF GEEKS BUILT
A NEW-AGE
LIFESTYLE AROUND
AN OLD-BOYS’
TRADITION
S
by TOM ROBINSON
elf-proclaimed golf nerds Ian
Gilley and Harrison Lewis are
forward thinkers when it comes
to their beloved game. Yet they
thrill to golf’s purest traditions.
Give them a century-old Donald Ross
design, a beguiling panorama and a first-
tee honor box and the geek-out is on.
The evidence dutifully appears on their
Instagram feed—Sugarloaf Social Club—
in wistful photos, some via drone, of their
favorite courses and scenes. Those shared
shots are dog whistles to their legion of
simpatico followers, fellow travelers on
the road to Sugarloaf.
The name represents not a place but an
“ethos,” an ideology or spirit. Gilley and
Lewis, Sugarloaf’s curators, easily drop that
word into conversations about the mystical
meaning of golf, and what golf means to them.
And so they describe Sugarloaf’s ethos
as “like-minded golfers dedicated to the
classical preservation, enjoyment and cre-
ation of our game. #PlayorPerish.” That’s
their lyrical tip of the Tam o’ shanter to
golf’s ancient tao, even as Gilley and Lewis
walk the game’s #cuttingedge.
BRAND BUILDERS
The serendipitous fact is, over the last two
years Gilley and Lewis have turned Sug-
arloaf Social Club, originally a Facebook
group Gilley created to stay up with college
golf pals, into a snowballing marketing
consultancy, the Sugarloaf Creative Lab.
They conceptualize ways to improve
brand recognition and link golf’s past and
future for courses, clubs and manufacturers,
promoting everything through Instagram.
Their clients include Pinehurst Resort
and Augusta National, although Lewis
cheekily neither confirms nor denies the
latter link. “The contract says we can’t
talk about it,” he says.
vsga.org
“The point of Sugarloaf above all
else is connecting these sort of
folks and creating a community.”
—Ian Gilley
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