Ian Critser is a long way from home. After living in North Carolina and attending college at Ole Miss, Critser spent a year and a half at Links Magazine, during which time his voice became well recognized in the world of Golf Twitter. But in August 2019, Critser packed up and moved to Portland, Oregon, to work for another company well known in the hardcore golfing community: MacKenzie Golf Bags, where Critser works in sales and creative support. He’s spent his first few months keeping a safe distance from the nuclear meltdown of his beloved Rebels’ football season, as well as nailing down the final details of his own MacKenzie bag.
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LYING FOUR: So how’s golf in Portland?
IAN CRITSER: It’s good, man. I’ve been playing a little bit at Waverly Country Club, which is an old Chandler Egan design. Gil Hanse came in and did a renovation a few years ago, and it’s really, really good — a lot of history out there, really cool. I haven’t been able to explore options or the other private clubs yet. I’ve been focusing on work and playing a little bit of golf, but not an absurd amount.
LYING FOUR: How has Portland treated you differently from living in the South?
IAN CRITSER: The people are pretty similarly hospitable — which I kind of wasn’t expecting, to be honest. I went in thinking, “Oh this is a very weird area, where everybody’s got tattoos and piercings,” and there is a little bit of that. Everyone that I’ve met has been super-nice and super-welcoming, but you miss the southern accents and all that. But similarly hospitable. People have been nice and welcoming and friendly. There’s just a lot more rain.
LYING FOUR: I didn’t realize until recently that you spent a few years working at Pinehurst. That must’ve been OK.
IAN CRITSER: Yeah, during my summers home from Ole Miss, I worked two seasons in the pro shop at Pinehurst. I was a retail intern for one of them, and full retail sales staff the second one. That was kind of my first spark in this crazy golf world. I grew up an hour north of Pinehurst, right outside of Raleigh, and I went down to the 2014 U.S. Open. I’d never been there before that Open, but I went, “Whoa, this is an hour south of me?” I thought it was the coolest place. That following summer, I worked there and played golf after work just about every day. We got a pretty good deal as employees, and that was a lot of fun. It kind of opened my eyes to golf architecture and the whole golf world.
Pinehurst No. 2.
LYING FOUR: What are your favorite three courses in that area?
IAN CRITSER: First is No. 2, just for what it is. It’s the U.S. Open course that I think of the most. It’s tough, but it’s playable at the same time. I’ve only broken 90 on it once, which is saying something. Every time, you get the history and the feel of Pinehurst, and the rest of it wouldn’t exist without the success of that course, I wouldn’t think. The more playable Donald Ross option that would be my second-favorite is Mid Pines. Mid Pines is so much fun. It doesn't beat you up like No. 2 does, and the back nine is just so good. The routing is amazing: it kind of winds up and down this hill, and then No. 16 falls off down this big dogleg left. The par-3s are all fantastic. And then you come around the corner on No. 18, and this old inn greets you — great spot for a beer and to watch people come in. Then the third one, just for a zany choice — some people don’t like it, but I love Tobacco Road. I’ve had a blast there every time I’ve played it. It’s tough your first time, because it’s all blind and you don’t know where to go. But once you’ve played it a couple times, you kind of figure it out. There are these massive slopes and contours on the greens, and it’s just a blast. Mike Stranz was a genius.
LYING FOUR: What’s it like being a local in Pinehurst? Is it kind of like living in Disneyland, or is everything so laid-back up there that it’s not too weird?
IAN CRITSER: I was sort of a quasi-local, since I lived in Raleigh and would commute down. But it’s a very small community, and you kind of have to like golf or tennis, because there’s not a whole lot else around there. Anyone who’s been there knows that it’s this really rural part of North Carolina that is a golf oasis, which I love. But if you grew up not liking golf for whatever reason, then you’d get bored. For a golfer, though, it is Disneyland. You have so many options that are close to you; you have some of the best memorabilia shops in the golf world outside St. Andrews. Everything there revolves around golf. It’s so cool. Everyone there has all these great stories of their golf travels, and the history of the place is just fantastic.
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LYING FOUR: I was really excited about your move a few months ago to start working at MacKenzie, because I think it’s such a cool company. But I worried that perhaps your decision says something about the state of print journalism in the golf media.
IAN CRITSER: I loved my time at Links. It was fantastic. I got to do some really cool work and take some really cool trips. It was a tough decision to move out to Portland and work for MacKenzie, but one of my good friends was at the helm here, and it was tough to turn down an opportunity to work with him at a really cool company. Not that Links is not that, but it felt like the right move. I don’t think it was indicative of the health of print media, and I base that on some recent experience here. One of our products here, the leather Valuables Pouch, got featured in Golf Magazine. It was a very small, I guess half-page feature, but we’ve had a crazy amount of orders for that. So people think that print media is declining, but we can tell you from this side that people do still pay attention; we’ve got the physical results of that here. The Links readership is still very strong. Branching into the digital side was always interesting, because the printed Links is still king, but we saw a lot of growth on the digital side in social media accounts, our weekly newsletter, and our web content. It’s still strong, I think. And you don’t really see that unless you’re in it, and you hear that print is on the decline, but it seems strong from my end.
LYING FOUR: What does your day usually look like at MacKenzie?
IAN CRITSER: What people might not realize is that we’re a pretty small operation. My boss and I share an office in the Portland suburbs. The days can vary: sometimes we’re doing a lot of shipping, and I’ll be physically packing up boxes and printing labels; other days we’ll be making up renderings and getting those nailed down. I’m in charge of answering our general catchall e-mail, so I’ll be answering those questions about order status, whether something is possible, things like that. That’s a big part of it, because we want to make sure we have a really high level of customer service, and we pride ourselves on that. We just want to make people happy. Sometimes I’m finishing golf bags, physically putting the holes in the straps. I don’t do any sewing, though — that’s not my forte. But it’s kind of cool to see everything that MacKenzie makes come through this little shop. It’s a very cool process.
LYING FOUR: How many people work at MacKenzie?
IAN CRITSER: About 10. and growing a little bit. Right now, we’re thinking about taking on a few more contractors to do sewing, because we are absolutely slammed. And with the Holidays coming up, we’re only gonna get busier.
LYING FOUR: So what are the challenges of marketing a MacKenzie bag? It seems like anybody who’s in the market for a high-end golf bag is already gonna think of MacKenzie first.
IAN CRITSER: That’s really kind of you to say. We hope that when people start thinking about a high-end golf bag that MacKenzie is who they think of. The first challenge is the price point. They are pricey for a good reason: it’s handmade from start to finish and fully customized. Some people do get turned off by the price. But we’ve done a good job building our Instagram presence. As you know, the golf social media community has good and bad sides, but it’s been a very helpful tool for us. Five years ago, MacKenzie didn’t have an Instagram account; I think it’s up to 15,000 followers now, and it’s a very engaged bunch. That’s been a helpful tool, and has imprinted us as the place in people’s minds as the number one high-end golf bag — at least we hope so. Some people do have an initial sticker shock, but once you explain to them what goes into it — it’s all full-grain leather if you want leather, hand-stitched, you can put anything you want on it, made start to finish in our little shop here in Portland. And the attention to detail is fantastic; our team does a great job with that. Once you explain it to them, it makes a lot more sense.
LYING FOUR: I saw one of the No. 4 bags when I was at Pinehurst a few months ago, and it was the first time I’d seen one in person. It was so nice that it looked like it belonged in a museum.
IAN CRITSER: Pinehurst has been a great partner for us, and it’s cool to see it come full circle for me. When I’m home, I’ll go down to Pinehurst and see the MacKenzies in the shop and think, “Wow, I used to sell out of this shop, and now the company that I’m working for is selling out of this same shop.” It’s kind of cool. Another funny thing is that people are afraid to use the bags. They’re so beautiful that people don’t want to use them. But they’re meant to be used and are meant to take a beating, and we want people to use them. But if you want to just display it in an office or whatever, then that’s your prerogative.
LYING FOUR: Do you have a MacKenzie bag?
IAN CRITSER: That’s kind of a funny story. I’ve only been here about three months, so I don’t have a bag of my own yet. It’s in production, and I have to wait just like everyone else does. And I took a little bit longer to decide on my own design. When it’s done, it’s going to be pretty simple, but it has some nice touches. You’ll appreciate this: I have the Lyceum logo on the bottom of the bag.
LYING FOUR: Nice!
IAN CRITSER: It’ll have a tonal navy bottom, with shades of powder blue on there as well. But right now I’m using a Pinehurst bag. That’s not a bad bag to have as a loaner.
LYING FOUR: When you finish that, be sure you tweet a picture of it, because I’d love to see it.
IAN CRITSER: Oh, for sure. I’m sure I’ll get a few of the “woke” golf people saying, “Ugh, whatever.” But I’m excited to put it to good use.
LYING FOUR: If you haven’t muted those people by now, then that’s your fault.
IAN CRITSER: Fair enough.
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