The MaD Hatter

March 23, 2023

September 25-26, 2021

54 players.

Sweetens Cove Golf Club

After Breakfast at Tiffany’s the buzz and excitement of what I would put together next took center stage. We jumped past if I would even put on another tournament as most people expected another BaT. One and done. Each theme will be new and nothing to be reused. With this started the creative journey to the next.

Now I grew up with Alice in Wonderland like most people my age (don't let all my grey hair fool you), however it was by no means my favorite. It wasn’t until later in life I found a deeper appreciation for it and particularly, the Mad Hatter himself. Ultimately I thought “this character embodies so much of how I feel creativity right now and gives me an excuse to do whatever the hell I want with no reason for explanation.” Thus it was the perfect theme for the next event. Focusing on one character suited me more so than all of Alice in Wonderland, given the specificity and rabbit-holes I tend to wander.

I tend to get quite a bit of inspiration from tattoos so that’s where I started. Now this was by far the largest portfolio of logos Seth and I put together, but how can you blame us? For the main logo, I knew it had to be related to a hat and honestly I spent a little bit on the variation then I just took a step back and paralleled the Mad Hatter’s actual hat and put my creative spin on it. Look closely as you may see that the hat opening doesn’t look normal. This is because it is in the shape of the famous Tupac bunker on #2 at Sweetens Cove. That detail stayed consistent through any logo that included a hat with the opening showing.

Even though that being the “main logo” I’m actually more proud of a supporting logo that arrived while I was playing around with the hat. We incorporated a pocket watch, but I knew this couldn’t be an ordinary one, it had to be special. So we had the numbers reversed and kept 3 hands to feature similarly as in the story, but to include the tee, flag and persimmon. Specifically, to have them pointed at the “6 o’clock”, “3 o’clock”, and “8 o’clock” positions. Why are these significant? Well a friend, deeply connected and loved in the golf community, passed away early in 2021 and I wanted to make him part of the event forever. The two hands pointed at 6 o’clock and 3 o’clock are for his birthday, June 15^th. While the third hand pointed at 8 o’clock is for the 40 original players we had at Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which he attended.

Additionally, the particular scorecard with this logo on it included a special message. He often referred to his son as “Baby Thor” which many people saw as he enjoyed making incredible gear showcasing his creativity and the love for his son with this nickname.

Each detail whether it’s in a logo or something during the event has a specific meaning and purpose. Every time I see this logo I think of him and the impact he had on all of us with a smile on his face.

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With the precedent that was set for BaT on the invites, I know I had to step it up. The font was playful, almost similar to Harry Potter and this was where I really started playing around in Canva. The "falling" T with the subtle "oops" along with the letter-pressed "We're All Mad Here" is what set it apart. These were extremely fun to make and the different color palette made it even more unique. Of course each brand gets their own wax stamp because that's what Kings do.

Now one thing I hinted on with BaT were the unique tees for the event and for Mad Hatter there was no exception. The white tees had a distinctive design that was actually “MAD” in morse code; sense a pattern here? While the natural tees look to be something you probably haven’t seen before. That’s because I ended up going with what I like to call a “broken barbershop” design. You know the old-time barbershop spiral, or barber’s pole, that twist like a candy cane? I wanted to utilize something similar to that but thought why not break it, or have it stepped. The company I used to produce the tees knocked them out of the park.

Getting back to the event – I tried to make almost every component different than BaT, to establish it’s own identity. One cool addition I incorporated was a scavenger hunt on each of the 9 holes while the tournament was taking place. Nine unique riddles were created to give a clue as to where the mystery item was located on that particular hole. Some obviously easier than others. With the kicker being that the mystery item was actually a mini bottle of Malort, courtesy of Tom Brown. In order to get the actual prize, the person finding the bottle had to take the shot, some could say that being a tormenting prize in itself. Once taken, they would get a vintage Golden Nugget slot coin from the 1970s.

Shifting gears a little. This is the year that I consider one of the best trophy lineups that I’ve seen, amateur or professional. First of all, the gross individual winner received a fully custom WWE purple leather, gold-plated belt, donning the main hat logo and “We’re All Mad Here” broken up within. This one was extremely difficult to part with, as it became one of my favorite items created for the event.

Next, the net individual winner received a custom metal-sculpted vintage pipe, because why the hell not? It didn’t really have any tie to the theme, I just liked the idea and the company I worked with did a tremendous job.

Finally, were the team trophies, where I had a bit of a freakout moment as 6 weeks until the event my original vendor pulled out and left me to find another artisan. Luckily, I reached out to Jayme Coggin (CMDGolfCo) and he was extremely gracious to take on the project with the limited timeframe. After a few back and forth ideas, we finally landed on doing the pocketwatch logo as a full solid brass trophy for each team winner.

BIG EASTER EGG – There are only a handful of people that know this, but when I first sent Jayme the picture of the pocketwatch logo, I actually sent him an older version that had the 12 o’clock roman numerals backwards. Seeing as it was too late realizing my mistake, I actually took a step back and said that this works exactly with the theme from the beginning. Take a look between the logo from earlier and the picture of the trophies, you’ll notice the difference.

Something that only built off of last year’s event was making an eagle and receiving the coveted prize that for this year changed along with everything else. This year were vintage-styled keys with 4 different colors. Everyone that saw them instantly wanted one, and I wanted to hand out as many as possible. Who would have thought something so small would be valued so greatly by those attending. I was extremely proud to hand out every single one that was made, besides my keepers… Either way, this tradition will continue to evolve and I know one of the questions that will always be asked is what are the eagle prizes this year.

These are just a few things that encompassed Mad Hatter. This theme and event solidified my love and passion for bringing people together in community and to create things I never thought possible.

With Love,

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