Nancy Haley comes bounding onto the driving range at Rolling Hills Country Club and immediately becomes the center of attention. It’s not that she’s virtually the only woman striping balls before her round. It’s the sense that she’s the most powerful person on the premises, man or woman.
That can happen when you succeed not once, but twice in the very competitive, and very male-dominated, world of designing and manufacturing golf clothing.
She retired from Sport Haley after generating $21 million in sales in 1996, but came back with a vengeance the following year, teaming up with Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood to create the Tehama brand. Tehama had more than $7 million in sales its first year and, even in a down economy, has continued to do well enough that in 2007 Haley was named the winner of the Ernie Sabayrac Award for lifetime contributions to the golf industry, the highest honor bestowed by the PGA of America.
As Haley said, channeling legendary fictitious ballplayer Chico Escuela, “Golf’s been very, very good to me.”
That sentiment was borne out during her round at Rolling Hills, which began with a simple question: Why golf?
“My husband was a golfer, and when I got married I rode in the cart with him one time. And I said: ‘I’m not doing that anymore. I think I can play this game.’ And I was OK. I can hit it pretty far, and I’ve struggled, just like everyone else. But it’s such fun. You can play it your whole life, and I’ve played it around the world. And it’s really great for business, because you can see what someone’s temperament is.
“Say you want to do a deal with someone. You play golf and you’re going, ‘Oh, come on.’ Maybe they don’t cheat, maybe they do, but that’s almost not the issue. It’s their demeanor. Do they throw clubs? Are they swearing? I don’t expect someone to go, ‘Oh, shucks,’ when they hit bad shots, but there’s that unspoken golf etiquette thing.”
Making a mark
“When I started playing the game, I realized what the need was. I thought there was a niche that no one else was doing. I said to my husband, ‘Take me to the bank, help me get a loan and I’m going to start this company.’ That was in 1986. When I played golf with my husband, I’d go into the locker room and I realized how ugly the clothes were that the women were wearing. They were so ugly that they’d change their clothes before they went out to the grocery store or anywhere else, because they didn’t want to be seen in their golf clothes. I thought, ‘What is wrong with this picture?’ I said I was going to design clothes that a woman would want to wear all the time.”
A whole new ballgame
“I’d made a lot of my own clothes in high school, so I knew how to sew, but when I went into the commercial side, I realized that knowing how to sew may help you understand how a garment is constructed, but not how it’s done commercially. It’s a whole different program, and not only that, the business side is very important. You’ve got to know the ins and outs, raising money. That was hard.
“I thought (the business) would just be for women, but when I got into the business I realized that was only about 25 percent of the entire industry, and if I really wanted a big business, to make some money, I had to get into the men’s side.”
Do ya feel lucky?
“My husband knew Clint Eastwood through a mutual buddy who runs his restaurant in California. In 1996, we were in Clint’s tennis tournament, and the first night we were standing at the bar and he says: ‘I hear you’re retired. What are you going to do now, because I really like your shirts?’ I told him I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t want to work that hard, and he said I didn’t seem like the kind of person who could play golf all the time. He kept asking about it and finally, kiddingly, I said: ‘Why are you asking? Do you want to do something with me in golf clothing?’
He looks at me and says, “We could call it Tehama.” Seriously, the blood rushed out of my head. I had to put my head down for a minute. It was one of those right place, right time things. I thought he was kidding and when I finally looked up, he was walking away. I looked at the mutual friend and went, ‘What was that?’ A week later, I got a call to meet with Clint and his business manager.
“I never would have started another clothing company if it wasn’t for him. That just made it too much fun.”
The good old boys network
“I didn’t go into golf clothing because I was this fashionista designer. I understand clothing, but I understood an opportunity. I think that was even better. It was something that was wide open, and that doesn’t come along very often. I speak to women’s groups, and I tell them that if I can leave having inspired just one person who has a great idea to act on it, then I’d be really happy. Because that’s what it’s all about. You don’t want to wake up at 60 and say, ‘Man, I had this great idea when I was 25, and if I had just done it, but someone else did it first.’
“The business was all male. It was really tough. But it’s like the economy now: I think people can use a negative and make it a positive. . . . People are worried about just buying gas. But there’s still business out there. We just have to make sure they’re spending their money with us.”
Fashion forward
“It’s hard to divorce yourself from the business. It sounds like you’re being a clothes snob, but sometimes you look at someone and you’re going, ‘Doesn’t she own a mirror?’ That happens all the time. And not only that, but quality. You see a pair of slacks that costs $150, and that’s really expensive. And then I look to see the quality and I’m shocked, the quality is so poor. But most consumers are naive about that. They don’t know what to look for.”
Here’s Nancy
“If the guys I play with don’t know me, they’re expecting me to play from the forward tees. My favorite is when I’m playing in a tournament. Usually there are only a handful of women who play in them. The guys are hanging out around their carts and they’re all excited about the day, and then they see me walking up. And their heads start drooping down and you know they’re going, ‘Oh, no, not me, not me.’ And I walk up and give them this really bright ‘Hi!’ and they’re going, ‘Oh, geez . . .’ And then I hit it, and then they like me. By the end of the round, they’re going, ‘Oh, we have to play together again sometime.’ ”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
The Basics
Dream foursome
“Let’s see, Tiger Woods for sure, and Annika Sorenstam. I’d say Clint (Eastwood), but he’s like a 15 handicap; that’s about what I am. You know, I think I’d take him anyway, because then I wouldn’t feel so out of it.”
Once in a lifetime
“It had to be my hole-in-one. It was in Ixtapa, Mexico, on a 175-yard, par-3. I used a 4-iron and hit a really not spectacular shot. But it was to an elevated green. The ball rolled up, but we couldn’t even see it go in. Even so, that’s got to be the most memorable shot. The funny thing is, I never thought about saving the ball and, on the next hole, I pumped it into the water. Actually, I think that might have been more memorable.”
From the tips
“There are so many things I’ve heard. My head is spinning with advice. For me personally, I would say pause at the top. If you take it back slow and then give it that little pause, then you pull down like your pulling on a rope and let your hands whip through.”
