Green on the Green: Golf and cannabis find unexpected official partnerships
Photo by Ryan Lytle
As cannabis use becomes more frequent and less stigmatized in Missouri, businesses in the area seem to be more willing to partner with companies in the space. Since recreational legalization, farmers markets, nonprofits, clothing brands, and more have all begun making deals with members of the cannabis industry. This is no different for golf courses in the state.
This past summer, Vlassic Labs partnered with Old Kinderhook Golf Course for their three-day ‘Vlassic Classic’ tournament, CLOVR Cannabis teamed up with the National Golf Club of Kansas City for the ‘Green CLOVR Golf Tournament’, and Timeless takes over Royal Meadows Golf Club every other Friday in partnership with Mulligan’s Country Club for their ‘Mulligan’s Friday Night Lights’ golf league.
Photo by Ryan Lytle
While it may seem like an odd partnership, combining a prestigious, upper-class sport that is catered to the older crowd with a hippie, millennial-focused culture built on going against the grain, members of both lines of work say that the two are a perfect match.
“Why a lot of people gravitate towards golf as cannabis people is because you’re outdoors,” Timeless Kansas City Marketing Manager Trenton Warner says. “It’s a four- to five-hour outdoor experience that nobody’s going to tell you can’t smoke weed.”
After frequenting Royal Meadows for a couple of years, Warner thought that it would be a great idea to partner with the club and Mulligan’s Country Club for their bi-weekly golf league. Joining in on the fun was an easy decision for the team at Royal Meadows, hopeful that events such as these expand their customer demographic.
“If you want to keep growing your course and growing your players, you’re going to have to just reach out to the different players anyway,” Royal Meadows Golf Club Assistant General Manager Scott Keithley says.
Photo by Ryan Lytle
Keithley says that this shift in their target demographic can be attributed to COVID, where the younger crowd got more involved in the sport, having to shy away from close-contact activities.
“With COVID, the boom that was in golf went after a lot of millennials,” he says. “A lot of them started playing golf.”
Of course, taking what current, traditional players at the course know and love and pairing it with a drug that is still tainted with half-century old rumors has come with a little pushback. However, Keithley says that he and his team were quick to put an end to any of that opposition.
Photo by Ryan Lytle
“There was also some bite back with initial players, but we just kind of fought that off with, ‘This is no different from you coming here buying a six pack of beer,’” Keithley says. “It’s the same thing essentially.”
This progressive mindset is what drives the successful three-way partnership. But Warner also points out the fact that not all traditional golfers are against meshing the two lifestyles.
“I think golf lending itself to be more open to people, and then also cannabis being more open—being legalized in Missouri and people being able to be more open about the use of it—I think you’re finding out that a lot of older people who played golf have always smoked cannabis while playing golf,” he says.
If you find yourself out at Royal Meadows on a ‘Mulligan’s Friday Night Light’ evening, don’t be surprised to smell something funky in the air. But consumption on the golf course is nothing new, Keithley mentions.
“You see it out on the golf course any day,” he says. “It’s not just that league.”
Getting new players on the course has come easy for the league, they say, starting with around 32 players and now hosting 56 every other Friday.
“They actually built the league pretty quickly, and the growth we’ve seen has been, to me, really substantial and fun to watch,” Keithley says.
Photo by Ryan Lytle
While summer has officially come to a close, temperatures still have yet to take too steep a drop, meaning ‘Mulligan’s Friday Night Lights’ will continue until players are forced to pack up their clubs and head indoors to hibernate until next spring.
If you weren’t able to get in on the fun this summer, don’t worry; Keithley says that the course is hopeful to get the league back up and running once winter has passed.
“I think we’re going to hit the ground running with it next spring and be able to do it the whole year,” he says.
With music, food and drinks, prizes, and of course cannabis, Timeless’ ‘Mulligan’s Friday Night Lights’ seems to be a hit for this subculture of golfing cannabis connoisseurs.
The next event is set for next Friday, Oct. 3. More information can be found on Mulligan’s Country Club’s Instagram.
