THE LEYENDERO JOURNAL — ISSUE NO. 14

YOU DON’T NEED PERMISSION TO DO GOLF YOUR WAY

Respect the game. Be yourself.

There are some things about golf that should never change.

Shake hands before the round.

Keep up with the group in front of you.

Fix your ball marks.

Rake the bunker.

Don’t talk in somebody’s backswing.

Call the penalty on yourself even when nobody else saw it.

Respect the course. Respect the people you’re playing with. Respect the game.

Those traditions matter.

They’re part of what makes golf different.

But somewhere along the way, golf picked up another set of rules that were never actually written in the rulebook.

What you’re supposed to wear.

How you’re supposed to look.

What kind of music belongs on the course.

What kind of people are supposed to play.

What a “real golfer” is supposed to be.

And that’s where we’ve got a problem.

Because respecting the game and looking exactly like everybody else are not the same thing.

Not even close.

GOLF DOESN’T NEED ANOTHER VERSION OF SOMEBODY ELSE

Maybe you grew up around country clubs.

Maybe you didn’t.

Maybe your first set of clubs came fitted from a golf shop.

Maybe they were hand-me-downs from your uncle.

Maybe you wear a traditional polo and khakis every Saturday morning.

Maybe you pull up in something loud enough to be seen from three fairways over.

Maybe your cart is playing classic rock.

Maybe it’s country.

Maybe it’s hip-hop.

Maybe it’s Tejano, corridos or old-school jams your dad used to play.

None of that determines whether you belong in this game.

How you treat people does.

How you take care of the course does.

How you carry yourself does.

How you handle that triple bogey on No. 7 definitely does.

Golf has always taught character.

That doesn’t mean it has to erase personality.

GOLF HAS NEVER BEEN PERFECT — AND THAT’S WHY WE LOVE IT

Around here, golf doesn’t always come with perfectly manicured surroundings and a clubhouse that looks like a resort.

Sometimes you’ve got wind blowing 25 miles an hour.

Sometimes the rough is a little rougher than advertised.

Sometimes there’s a pump jack moving behind the green.

Sometimes you can see a water tower in the distance and hear somebody’s speaker three holes away.

And sometimes that round ends with everybody sitting around the parking lot talking about a shot nobody is ever going to let you forget.

That’s golf too.

Maybe that’s the best part of golf.

The places we play become part of the story.

Odessa.

Midland.

San Angelo.

Abilene.

Pecos.

Small-town tracks.

Municipal courses.

Local courses where the starter knows your name and your buddies know exactly where you’re going to miss your drive before you swing.

You don’t need the game to look like Augusta every Saturday morning to fall in love with it.

Sometimes all you need is a tee time, a few friends and four hours where everything else can wait.

THERE’S ROOM FOR ALL OF US

One of the greatest things happening in golf right now is that more people are discovering that the game can belong to them.

Different generations.

Different backgrounds.

Different cultures.

Different styles.

Grandfathers teaching grandkids.

Fathers and sons.

Mothers and daughters.

Friends who barely knew each other before somebody asked, “You play golf?”

People who might never have crossed paths anywhere else spending four hours walking the same fairways.

That’s powerful.

And golf gets better when those people don’t feel like they have to become somebody else before they’re allowed to enjoy it.

You can respect tradition without being trapped by it.

You can appreciate where golf came from while helping shape where it goes next.

There is room for the guy wearing the classic white polo.

There is room for the kid wearing hot pink.

There is room for the scratch golfer chasing 68.

There is room for the weekend golfer celebrating the one birdie he made after shooting 97.

There is room for the quiet foursome.

There is room for the group laughing their asses off because somebody just chunked a wedge ten yards.

There’s room.

That’s the point.

HECHO DIFERENTE

Leyenda Golf Co. was never built to tell golfers what they were supposed to look like.

We built it for the opposite reason.

To remind people that they can bring who they already are into the game.

Our culture.

Our humor.

Our families.

Our music.

Our West Texas roots.

Our style.

Golf doesn’t have to lose its traditions to make room for something different.

The game is strong enough for both.

Actually, golf is better because of both.

Because the goal shouldn’t be to make everybody look like the golfer standing next to them.

The goal should be to get more people standing on that tee box in the first place.

And when they get there, they should feel comfortable being themselves.

That’s what Hecho Diferente means to us.

Not different just to be different.

Different because it’s real.

DO GOLF YOUR WAY

So wear the hat.

Play the music.

Bring your people.

Laugh a little louder.

Celebrate the birdie.

Forget the triple.

Order another round after the round.

Teach somebody new how to play.

And when somebody tries to convince you there’s only one way you’re supposed to look, talk or act to belong in this game, remember something:

You don’t need permission to do golf your way.

Respect the game.

Respect the course.

Respect the people around you.

After that?

Be yourself.

Because golf doesn’t need another version of somebody else.

It needs your version of you.

Con todo si no ¿Pa’ qué?

Live Legendary.