Dress Smart

An invitation to play the Dunhill Links Championship as an amateur is a knee-knocking affair. Sure, players have the anxiety of playing with the pros and in front of crowds, but they also have the weather, which can be counted on to wreak as much havoc, if not more, than any amateur player’s cold-topped 3-wood or balky putter stroke.

The tournament takes place in early October and is, with all due respect to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, at least the equal triumvirate of golf, Mother Nature and fashion. Spread over three courses—Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and the Old Course—the DP World Tour event is a showcase for three of the most celebrated links courses in the British Isles, where, as the saying goes, you can experience all four seasons during a round and sometimes, it seems, simultaneously. If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute, and it will change.

The tournament is a showcase for Richemont, the luxury goods house, which is the parent company to Dunhill but is also home to such brands as Cartier and Montblanc, as well as sportswear company Peter Millar. The event is one that offers “great brand exposure from a product standpoint but also from a global perspective,” says Peter Millar CEO Scott Mahoney. He is referring to the 168 amateurs who come from around the world to participate and in addition to playing with world-class golfers, receive tour-quality swag bags. Just some of those amateurs in recent years have included actors Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas, Bill Murray and Andy Garcia; athletes Gareth Bale, John Elway, Kelly Slater and a slew of cricketers and rugby players; musicians Huey Lewis, Tico Torres and Dave Farrell. Irish businessmen and powerbrokers Dermot Desmond and J.P. McManus usually play, and the 2024 edition saw PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan intriguingly paired in the same group as His Excellency Yassir Al-Rumayyan.

Actress Kathryn Newton, from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” says, “The gift bag is a big deal. Peter Millar gave me a cashmere cape two years ago that I wore everywhere. I could wear it golfing, but I wore it everywhere, to pieces.” After her dogs got a hold of it one day, it was then literally in pieces, so she went out and bought another one. “I loved it so much because it’s the kind of thing where I wore it on and off the golf course, and it was luxurious. It feels elevated. It feels like what it’s like to play at the Dunhill.”

For all the brand exposure the event provides and showcases, golf always remains the star. For Newton, who grew up playing golf with her father in Florida and whose swing is as smooth and soft as the cashmere cape she replaced, the nerves of playing in the event have dissipated since that first outing when “suddenly Rory’s on the driving range, telling me I have a good swing.” Over time, she says, the locals and pros have made her more comfortable by encouraging her game. She says the professionals really go out of their way in this regard. “There was something about them making me feel like I was meant to be there just as much as they are that really helped my game, and the crowds make me play better because I like to entertain. If I remember I’m an actor who plays golf, I play a lot better.”

Mahoney says he has the normal worries of most amateurs who make it inside the ropes—he’ll hit someone in the crowd with a tee shot—but he too is drawn to the professionals that he’s played with. “The European tour players are so much fun. They become part of the environment. They’re in the pubs at night, and it’s a very collegial atmosphere that people love being a part of.” More than that, Mahoney marvels at their talent. “You may have someone that’s 500th in the world that hits shots that you couldn’t even dream of and to see ‘em up close and listen to the sound off their clubs live is amazing.”

At night The Dunhill becomes a large party, vibrant and fun, including a black-tie event with live bands and a charity fundraiser. All the players comingle, many of them ambling over to the Jigger Inn by The Old Course for an extra pint or two. Mahoney says repeat performers, so to speak, get a tie with a band on it signifying each year they’ve participated. The event is one that exudes class. “There’s just these little things, the traditions that they’ve done there that make it so special,” he says. “Saturday night you got Huey Lewis with Tico Torres playing. You’ve got these incredible people singing and performing, and you are so honored to be there. It’s an amazing way they bring everybody together.”

After the internal fog of morning lifts, players are faced with the weather of the day, which is often bad enough that whatever elegance and chicness was on display the night before is abandoned. The wind may be blowing 40 off the sea and the rain stings at 45-degree angles. Sartorial concerns are abandoned for survival. The party turns ugly.

“Even when the weather is sh–, I love it,” says Danish pro Nicolai Hojgaard. “Your partners get into it. We’re at the home of golf, and we don’t have to take ourselves too seriously.”

Packing for this event is impossible, but the swag bags can offset that. “They provide a safety net,” Mahoney says. “People rave about them, and they joke that the gifts they get start to approach the entry fee of the event.” (The fee is $25K, and the celebs pay.)

Aside from waterproof rain gear, you’ll need lots of gloves, regular and rain. You need mittens to survive the bracing cold from shot to shot. Knit caps are a no-brainer, but the pro shops at each course will sell out of them when the sea turns angry. Two pair of shoes are the minimum, and three is smarter unless you plan on using the hair dryer to dry them in the room after every soggy round. Then, of course, your overstuffed bag filled with layers can be useless as the skies are just as likely to part and send you scrambling back to the pro shop for something lighter, not wool.

Newton says there is no real way to be prepared for the tournament. “No one could have prepared me for the 50-mile-an-hour wind, rain, sleet and snow at Kingsbarns on Friday. I felt like I was playing in an astronaut suit, drenched in water.”

As a student of the game, the location makes Newton turn to classic pieces. “The Dunhill is where I want to really look like an old-school golfer. It’s not about what you look like, per se, but I’m telling you, if there’s one place that’s photogenic and a place to rock your best golf outfits, it’s definitely the Dunhill. I feel very glamorous there.”

Peter Millar and Mahoney get to see their gear in action and up close. “It gives us some incredible opportunities to do weather-wear testing because inevitably there’s a day when it’s rain, sleet, wind, hail, sun, all in the same round.” The weather will punch and punch some more, and eventually it will win. Then when it’s all over, the hard part begins again. Once you arrive at the Edinburgh Airport, the lines will be serpentine and never-ending.

Yet, it’s all worth it. “One of my favorite things is getting up in the morning super early at the Old Course, and the sun is still rising, and you’re just out there with your caddie hitting balls, and it’s almost dark,” Newton says. “You can’t compare it to anything, and it feels so connected to nature and to the history of the game.”