Matchstick Golf's One-Year Anniversary

Matchstick Golf went live to the public on July 17, 2021. Its launch was, admittedly, decided earlier that week after months of careful planning, sourcing, drawing, strategizing, and packaging product. After five months of waiting, I decided I simply couldn't any longer and my attitude essentially became, "Ok, fuck it. Let's go."

So I did.

The concept for Matchstick has been explained before, and it's rather simple. After losing my favorite ball marker, the Jones Birdie, I was unable to find a replacement that fulfilled my requirements for style, size, price, and finish. So I did what any unreasonable and over-assured creative usually does, and I made my own.

I wrote a business plan, and the guts of it boiled down to this: golf ball marks should be unobtrusive to your playing partners, they should have a clean, polished finish, the art should be thoughtful and not hack, the presentation should be above the price point, and they shouldn't be the size of a goddamn poker chip.

Now we're a year into Matchstick and so many of you have understood the concept so well, it's honestly blown me away. Sometimes, when you think you have a great idea, you can be blinded by your own self-confidence. And of course, even if you realize this folly, you may be unable to distill issues with your plan. That Matchstick has hit home with so many of you has been the highlight of my year.

This year, for many reasons, has felt much longer than just 12 months. In fact, during a recent hole sponsorship for a tournament at Langdon Farms, I was amazed at the amount of ball markers I've done as I arranged my archive for display. A large ring display tray couldn't hold all of them, with dozens and dozens of retail and custom marks filling it up.

That would not have been possible without so many people lending their time, their energy, and their love to me over the past year. I have to give special recognition to my dad, Mark, my brother, Evan, and my mother, Audrey. Matchstick would not be possible without them. So too do I need to give a shoutout to Max and Drew Reinland of Muni Kids, Chris Carnahan and Matt Lemman of Jones, Yoon from Gilles & Loews, Joe Simons and Nick Heidelberger from At the Turn, Shain Brenden and Seth Allen from Assville, Tyler Munds, Andy Haner, John Turner, and Christina Mathewson.

Finally, thank you to all of you who have been here on this journey with me. As a former writer, I know any creative endeavor is wrought with fear about expressing yourself and the reaction from the public. That Matchstick has taken off, at all, is a complete surprise. The attitude when I launched was, "I like these. If someone else likes them, that's great." That's still my attitude today, and if you're with me then you're with me and I love that. 

Thank you for being here. Thank you for loving the marks so much. Matchstick is my favorite thing in my life and I just want to bring you more fun shit, more great marks, and more fun projects. 

There's a lot more on the horizon for Matchstick in Year 2. There's so many marks releasing this summer — we have things scheduled through all of September and there's some big collabs coming up. We'll also be expanding into a few other products, and I can't wait to see how y'all respond.

This week we're releasing a bunch of old marks from the archives, which you can go grab right now. We'll also do a couple contests, maybe a flash sale or two, and overall we're just going to celebrate a year of being together.

From the bottom of my heart, I love you all. Thank you for making this a reality.