It took a full decade after Amy Parker Anderson and Huntley Rodes first met in the New York City fashion world for the pair to realize, over a chance dinner, that they shared a love of golf. The next time the two got together, they did so with Rodes’s friend Jenna Walter, a former Division 1 player, for a round on the links of Gaylord Springs in Nashville, the city all three now call home. As they made their way across the greens that day in 2021, in outfits Rodes describes with a laugh as “barely cobbled together,” the conversation kept returning to the lack of stylish clothing options for female golfers.
Over beers and pizza after the game, the trio wasted no time mapping out what a line of elevated golf basics would look like—pieces that wouldn’t “just get shoved to the back of the closet,” Parker Anderson explains. Just a few months later, they made it official: They would start their own line and call it Honors, a nod to the player who tees off first “having the honor.”
Before a single thread got stitched, though, the partners polled a bevy of female golfers. “I would walk up to random women on the driving range and say, ‘Would you mind filling out this survey?’” Parker Anderson recalls. Hundreds of responses solidified their hunch: They weren’t the only ones feeling restricted by the ill fitting, the overly revealing, the wildly colorful, and the severely outdated. “It’s basically the same stuff I wore when I started playing at seven,” Walter says. “For women, golf apparel hadn’t evolved in a good twenty-five years.”
To help hone their looks, the women consulted with a veteran designer with a keen understanding of size inclusivity, flattering cuts, and materials that both offer versatility and evoke luxury. The anchor of Honors, a blazer available in black, navy, and cream that one could just as easily wear in a meeting as in a tee box, “came together the easiest,” Walter says. Each piece that followed in the initial capsule collection of twelve—including smart high-waisted shorts, a half-zip pullover, and a pleated skort that would also appeal to tennis and pickleball players—is similarly meant to pull double duty.
“Nobody is going to look at it and say, ‘That’s a golf shirt,’” Parker Anderson says of their polo. But the designs have “all of the technical properties that you need to play,” such as underarm gussets, pleats for mobility, UPF fabric for sun protection, and built-in tee holders. A neutral color palette speaks to the minimalist aesthetic the trio gravitate toward when they’re off the course. “There’s a time and place for prints, but there are amazing brands doing that already,” Parker Anderson says. That’s not to say there’s no room for cheek. A sly wink, for instance, gets stitched along each blazer’s inside breast pocket: “My other jacket is green.”
Since the first pieces debuted last summer, the reception, the cofounders say, has been more than they could have hoped for. They sell the line on the Honors website, as well as at pop-up events and trunk shows at shops and resorts across the country. Next, they aim to add new designs as well as accessories to the product line.
As for their own games, “the fastest way to stop playing golf together is to start a golf brand together,” Walter quips. “Usually, it ends up being two out of the three of us—the other one is busy working on the brand.”
