GOOG 01: Andrew Haynes - Fairgame Golf

Hello there and welcome to the first Golf Outside of Golf blog post! We are starting off this series strong with an amazing guest, Andrew Haynes! Get to know the VP executive director at Fairgame golf and avid golfer through his answers to some of the questions I was able to ask him last week.

Before we start, you might be asking yourself, who is Andrew Haynes?

Andrew Haynes has been the creative force behind some of today’s biggest brands. With over 15 years of experience in brand identity, design, and advertising, his modern creative aesthetic work has helped brands reach even greater heights. Here are some of the positions/ places where he’s worked:

Art director at Tracy Locke (2005-2007)

Senior graphic designer at Coca-Cola (2007-2011)

Bai Brands (2011-2012)

Art director at Ammirati 2012-2015

Senior art director at Gear Patrol 2015-2018

Creative director at Cavu Venture Partners 2018-2021

VP executive director at Fairgame Golf 2021-current

But everyone can find that out with a quick LinkedIn search, join me on this blog to learn who Andrew really is as a golfer and how he’s managed to combine his love for the sport and his successful career. To start off I asked him some quick fire golf related questions:

Where do you currently play golf?

New York.

What is your favorite course you’ve ever played? 

Crail.

What is the one course you would want to play?

Pebble Beach.

What major would you consider to be THE major?

The Masters

What is your golf hot take?

People who take the game too seriously, please always remember these 3 things: 1- Level your expectations, 2- You’re playing golf to have fun 3- “Don’t forget the core, characteristics and traits that we deem honorable in this game, like respecting your peers and things like that. It sounds really cheesy and what not, but I think it's very true”.

If you could play a round of golf with any professional golfer, past or present, who would it be and why?

Calvin Pete, he averaged 82% of fairways hit!

What are your golf superstitions/ pet peeves:

Heading straight for the tee, Let me have my warmup routine!.

What is one of the best times you’ve had on the course?

I walked up to the course on a rainy day and everyone was walking off, I didn’t care, I had my jacket on so I decided to play and ended up having the whole course for myself.

After getting to know Andrew’s golf side and being certain he is a true golf player we moved into learning how we ended up working in Golf Outside of Golf.

What and where did you study?

Graphic design at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Did you do any internships before or right after finishing uni?

I actually decided to dive straight into the work office and started working as an Art Director at Tracy Locke.

How was your relationship with golf before you started working at Fairgame?

Golf was a fun thing I did on the weekends to get away from my computer.

What made you move into the golf world?

Ben Claymer realized that the golf community was going through a very similar transformation to the watch world had gone through ten years ago and decided he wanted to approach the challenge in a nonnerdy way. We had friends in common and he decided to call me one day and let me know he was building this "thing" with Adam Scott and asked me to join.

We all know startups are not a stable/safe place to work, what made you want to take the risk?

I’ve always worked in startups, Start-ups are the most fun cause you get to build something.

Would you say golf has helped you in other aspects of your life?

Most definitely, golf is the best way to assess yourself in nature, it’s you and your thoughts about what is working and what isn't. How do you deal with conflict? Those traits of the game help me with stress, help me be a better husband, dad, worker, creative…

Where do you see Fairgame in 10 years?

Our goal is to build the biggest digital network of golfers. We want every golfer to be connected, we want to make the whole golfing experience simple and enjoyable.

What is the biggest challenge Fairgame is facing?

 We’re building something really ambitious and that just takes a lot of time. We have a lot of ambitious plans we want to build and that will just take time.

What are the next steps for Fairgame?

We want to start targeting small communities and dive deeply into them, we want to end up being able to connect every golfer with each other.

Couldn't have asked for a better guest to start off the series with! Please don't forget to check Andrew out on his Instagram and give the app a try, I've been using it for a while now and it is everything the golf world needs atm.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll see you on the next one! If you want to know anything else about Andrew let us know and we'll post the answers on Instagram!

Best,

Fer