In the pink

By Matt Cooper Last updated: 9th December 2009

A couple of weeks ago I was wandering around the NEC Golf Show with one word written in permanent marker on my hand.

The word was "pink" (although it was written in black) and was a reminder that I had accepted an invitation (dress code: "anything pink") to the launch party for the website of Ladies European Tour player Breanne Loucks.

I was once told (I don't know who by, but it sounds suspiciously like something my raffish colleague Harry the Hat would come out with) that "if you accept the invite, you accept the rules" so non-compliance wasn't an option.

The problem was finding anything pink to wear.

24 hours earlier I had left Foxhills GC with (inexplicable as it seems in the last week of November) sunburn and as I peered, horrified, in the changing room mirror I consoled myself with the fact that I did at least have something pink to take to the party - even if it was a face that made me look like the victim of a sun-bed accident.

Fortunately the flushed look had disappeared next morning so the various stands at the Golf Show were my last option and initially all I could find was a pink Breo sports watch.

I'm nothing if not persistent, however, and the perfect solution eventually presented itself when the Golf365 team got chatting to the founders of SubSeventy, the UK-based golf clothing manufacturer whose funky outfits are relatively new on the scene.

The SubSeventy story is a good one because just a couple of years ago they were having golf trousers made from their own designs in Thailand, then they began making them for friends and before they knew it they were running a small business from the back of a garage.

From those humble origins they now boast a striking range that is being worn by the American player Eric Axley (one of the few PGA stars to wear enough fabric for just the one golfer rather than three or four) and plenty of pros this side of the pond too.

I, meanwhile, had my eye on one of their fuchsia belts.

It was, like, so me. (For one evening at least - or so I thought.)

The colour did cause a couple of problems. One was avoidable - it was going to clash horribly with the trousers I was planning to wear but the pair I'd got on would do.

Meanwhile I had no intention of solving the other problem: I was quite prepared to comply with one rule of etiquette (accept the dress code) but there was no way I would follow another - the one that says shoes and belts should always match.

And whilst I was privately rubbishing the notion of wearing pink footwear I discovered the raw power of wearing pink anything.

"What's that you've got Matt?" asked the show's press officer.

"It's my new belt," I said proudly.

"You're going to wear that?" he gasped.

"It's all right," piped up Golf365 editor Dave Tindall. "Matt's very confident about his sexuality."

It was a wisecrack but Dave also meant his words and they further bolstered my ability to accept and rebuff the misguided gags and wary looks of conservative strangers.

I've always taken a perverse pleasure in being a bit ambiguous (about pretty much everything) and it occurred to me that having clothes that emphasised this got my brain working and boosted my confidence, which in turn reminded me of the way Neuro Linguistic Programming insists we should use language in ways that appeal to - and maximise - our specific brain patterns.

It also stuck me that this wasn't the first time I had seen the power of clothes.

A couple of months ago, in the lobby of the Hotel Kazakhstan, I witnessed a curious golfing makeover: on arrival the 120-odd Challenge Tour golfers slouched through check-in like teenagers on a school-trip, but when they returned from their rooms they were kitted out in their on-course gear and they were transformed: shoulders back, chest out, head held high; they were golfers now.

It was like the difference between Clark Kent and Superman.

It was also reminiscent of the way performers go to the dressing room, put on their stage outfits and emerge as stars ready to wow the crowd.

The pink belt was beginning to have something of a similar effect on me and I quite liked it - strangers hadn't been giving me such unusual looks since I shaved my hair off.

Do you see where I'm (not very) subtly heading? Yes, to the website launch party because golf + funky clothes + ever-changing hair = Breanne Loucks.

I interviewed Breanne earlier this year and discovered then that she has a bold, infectious personality and appearance, but I wasn't expecting to be quite so awed by the images created for the website.

The LET has taken on a slightly different feel in the last couple of years with younger players who are more fashion conscious and Breanne is typical: she takes her golf very seriously but don't make the mistake of thinking that her determination to look good on and off the course is a distraction.

She is incredibly committed to the sport, thoughtful when discussing it and believes her image impacts on her game in much the same way that Ian Poulter aims to "Look good, feel good, play good."

The glamorous photos on the website conform to those principles and from next season the site will also have tournament updates and a blog sent directly from Breanne's iphone.

But if the look of the party and the site was more like Vogue than Women & Golf Magazine the atmosphere was a lot less intimidating.

Indeed I ended the evening playing Wii tennis with the star of the show (something I doubt Vogue's infamous editor Anna 'Nuclear' Wintour would ever do).

For what it is worth the match ended with a monumental deuce game in which the blistering Loucks serve eventually wore down the unexpectedly competent Cooper backhand (it must be noted, however, that, unlike my opponent, I wasn't handicapped by high heels).

As good as the backhand was, the forehand almost caused significantly more damage when a wild follow through almost sent Breanne crashing - only her fast feet saved me from the shame of trying to put a positive spin on any "Golf365 spoils rookie's good looks and ends her season two weeks early" headlines.

(My relief was further heightened when she finished in the top ten at last week's Shaikh Maktoum Pro-am in Dubai.)

Next day I headed to another party and was so taken with my belt I decided to give it another spin.

Not surprisingly there were more gags, but the counter-intuitive pink power was still there and - contrary idiot that I am - I was loving it.

The next stage is to take the belt on to the course and see if it will make my golf game as pink and proud as I am. Get me.