Oakbrook Is Home Now: Inside the TRUE Linkswear Founders Cup

Oakbrook Golf and Leisure Club is our headquarters now, and I don't think that has fully sunk in for any of us yet. Our team works inside a golf course in Lakewood, Washington, with the flagship store on property and the first tee a short walk from where we sit all day.

 

The Founders Cup was how we opened it up. One day in September, twenty-seven teams, and a guest list made up of the people who have been part of this from the beginning: investors, ambassadors, United by Golf (UBG) athletes, media, and friends who were in it well before there was much to be in. Ryan and Jason Moore went off first at 8:06, and everybody else followed them out in ten-minute intervals from there.

 

Why We Run the Founders Cup

The reason we do this is pretty simple. The Founders Cup isn't a marketing event — it's the most honest version of what we're building. It's not a roster, it's a room. United by Golf started as a way to keep the right people close, and it turned into something bigger than that: a group where nobody cares about your index or your last contract.

 

Sergio Romo was out there with a nine handicap. Joel Dahmen was paired up a few groups from a guy who drove down that morning. Same tee sheet, same dinner, same table. We were never trying to build a brand that sponsors golfers. We were trying to build the group everybody wants to be in.

 

On the Course: Two-Man Best Ball

Two-man best ball, blue tees, and the golf held up.

 

• Gross winners: Michael and Andrew Putnam, sixteen under — they never really let the field get comfortable.
• Gross runner-up: The Moore brothers, fourteen under — either a great day or a long car ride home, depending on which brother you ask.
• Gross third: Joel Dahmen and Derek Bohlen, thirteen under.
• Net winners: Ross Steelman and Zack Forgash, sixteen under.

Real scores. Nobody sandbagging.

 

The Horserace That Changed Everything

Then the horserace, which is where the day turned into something people are still talking about.

 

Kellen Eaken and Keith Bennett had finished eighth gross and twelfth net — the kind of round nobody writes down. But with the light going gold and everyone circled up around the green with a drink in hand, Eaken rolled in a putt that ended it. Championship and horserace, decided on the same stroke. The reaction around that green was the best moment of the whole day. That's exactly why we run this format instead of a stroke-play event with a scoreboard nobody watches.

Dinner at The Edit Social House

Dinner belonged to The Edit Social House, and Chef James Padilla and his team deserve real credit for a card that had no business being served at a golf tournament:

 

• Oysters on the half with pomegranate mignonette pearls
• A whole side of troll-caught king salmon under smoked fig beurre blanc
• Wagyu ribeye with peach chimichurri

Behind the bar, it was Moore Margs, Charred Palomas, and Brout Oldies stirred over golf ball ice. The Edit is open Wednesday through Sunday, right here on property — so if you've played Oakbrook and skipped it, you've been doing it wrong.

 

The room went long the way the good ones do, with TOUR players and ballplayers and creators trading the same few stories in different orders until the staff started stacking chairs around us.

See You Next Year

We're doing it again next year, and it's going to be harder to get in.

If you want to know what TRUE Linkswear™ actually is, don't read the about page. Get on the tee sheet. Enjoy the Walk.