Adam R. covers apparel, accessories, and golf culture for DORMIED. He has been tracking brand drops and collaborations since 2018.
Who owns Primo Golf? Not, as much of YouTube assumes, Grant Horvat, at least not originally and not primarily. Primo Golf Apparel was founded by four golf-obsessed cousins from California, Matty Gay and Jason, Jordan, and Kirk Williamson, who launched the brand around a single product, the golf jogger, during the pandemic in June 2020. Horvat is an owner, the first from outside the family, after buying into the company in March 2024, three years after Primo first slid into his DMs with the message "Gotta get you wearing our joggers!" The full story runs from a free-golf country club job to a few hundred orders a day to Phil Mickelson losing a match, honoring the bet, and putting his entire LIV team in Primo. Here is how it happened and what the data says about where the brand sits now.
In one sentence: Primo Golf Apparel is a Utah-based golf clothing brand founded in June 2020 by cousins Matty Gay, Jason Williamson, Jordan Williamson, and Kirk Williamson, best known for golf joggers, with YouTube star Grant Horvat joining as the first outside owner in March 2024 and the brand serving as official apparel sponsor of Phil Mickelson's HyFlyers GC.
What the data shows
DORMIED tracks brand search interest across 10 global markets every month. Here is Primo's current position.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global DORMIED Index rank | 51 of 175+ |
| Monthly global searches | 14,800 |
| Three-month change | +1.4% |
| Month-over-month change | -33.3% |
Source: DORMIED Index, June 2026 snapshot.
Read together, those numbers describe an established mid-table brand with spiky, influencer-driven attention. At 14,800 monthly searches and rank 51, Primo has real, durable volume, more than most of the streetwear-golf cohort it gets grouped with. The sharp monthly swing is the signature of a brand whose interest moves with content: a Horvat video, a Mickelson moment, or a drop can double a month, and the quiet weeks in between give it back. The quarter nets out flat, which for a five-year-old brand that has already banked its LIV moment is consolidation, not decline.
Four cousins and a jogger
The origin is as unglamorous as brand origins get, which is part of the charm. Matty Gay, now the co-founder and CEO, spent his early working life at a local country club, taking the job substantially for the free golf, and later worked as a product manager at golf software company foreUP. He and his cousins, Jason, Jordan, and Kirk Williamson, had grown up playing together on California fairways and shared a frustration familiar to anyone under forty who has stood in a pro shop: traditional golf wear did not fit how they dressed anywhere else in their lives.
The wedge into the market was a single product. In June 2020, mid-pandemic, the cousins launched Primo around the golf jogger, tapered, athletic, and at that point still faintly scandalous on a golf course. The early days included the standard first-time-apparel-founder tuition: manufacturing missteps, sizing mistakes, learning inventory the hard way. But the product met the moment. Golf was booming, its new players dressed like athletes rather than members, and Primo's orders went from a few hundred a month to a few hundred a day.
The DM that changed the company
On July 9, 2021, Primo sent a direct message to a rising YouTube golfer named Grant Horvat: "Gotta get you wearing our joggers!" There was no contract and no ambassador deal. The cousins simply shipped him joggers in new colors and, in their own words, crossed their fingers that he would wear them on camera.
He did. The relationship compounded the way the best influencer partnerships do, informally and visibly, until it was formalized, and then in March 2024 it went a step further than almost any creator deal in golf: Horvat bought in, becoming Primo's first owner outside the founding family. His announcement called ownership in an apparel company a long-held dream, and the practical change was real: Horvat now sits in product meetings, works on design and development, and fronts limited Horvat drops. For search purposes, the answer to "is Primo Grant Horvat's brand" is precise: he is an owner and its most visible face, but the company remains founded, led, and majority-held by the Gay and Williamson cousins. Horvat, notably, also holds a stake in Takomo Golf, making him part-owner of two of the most-searched DTC brands in the game.
Phil Mickelson, a lost bet, and LIV
The brand's biggest coup arrived via a wager. Mickelson, by his own telling, lost a match to Horvat and was challenged to wear Primo joggers at the Open Championship. He honored it, expected to feel ridiculous, and instead fell for the product. In January 2025, Primo was announced as the official golf apparel sponsor of Mickelson's HyFlyers GC, debuting on the team at LIV Golf's season opener in Riyadh that February.
For a company that five years earlier was four cousins learning sizing charts, dressing a six-time major champion's team is a remarkable arc, and it is the kind of validation that separates Primo from the broader wave of Instagram golf apparel. The HyFlyers deal also explains the shape of Primo's search data: LIV weekends and Mickelson content spike the brand's visibility in a way a traditional wholesale apparel company could never buy.
Where Primo fits
DORMIED covers the culture-first golf brands as a group, and Primo occupies a distinct lane within it. Malbon sells taste. Students sells voice. Random Golf Club sells belonging. Primo sells comfort with a straight face: joggers, polos, and hoodies engineered for how younger golfers actually dress, marketed through creators rather than campaigns, at prices below the fashion-forward end of the market. It is the least ironic of the new wave, and its numbers, rank 51 with nearly 15,000 monthly searches, suggest the sincere approach travels further than the scene sometimes admits.
The open question is the one that faces every creator-adjacent brand: how much of the attention is the brand's and how much is borrowed from Horvat and Mickelson. The ownership answer helps here. A brand ambassador can churn; an owner is aligned for the long run, and Primo converted its most important relationship from rented to owned. That, more than any single drop, is why the brand's floor keeps rising.
FAQ
Who owns Primo Golf?
Primo Golf Apparel is owned by its four founders, cousins Matty Gay, Jason Williamson, Jordan Williamson, and Kirk Williamson, along with YouTube golfer Grant Horvat, who became the first owner outside the founding family in March 2024.
Is Primo Golf Grant Horvat's brand?
Not originally, and not primarily. Horvat became an ambassador after Primo DM'd him in 2021 and bought an ownership stake in March 2024. He is an owner and the brand's most visible face, but Primo was founded and is led by the Gay and Williamson cousins.
When was Primo Golf founded?
Primo launched in June 2020, founded by the four cousins around their first product, the golf jogger, during the pandemic golf boom.
Where is Primo Golf based?
Primo is headquartered in Lehi, Utah, where it was founded in 2020 and now runs a 30,000-square-foot operation. The four founding cousins are Californians, which is why the brand is often associated with California, but the company itself is a Utah business.
What is Primo Golf known for?
Golf joggers above all, the product the company launched with, plus polos, hoodies, and apparel aimed at younger golfers who want athletic fits on the course. The brand grew primarily through creator partnerships rather than traditional marketing.
Does Phil Mickelson wear Primo?
Yes. After losing a match to Grant Horvat, Mickelson was challenged to wear Primo joggers at the Open Championship, liked them, and in January 2025 Primo became the official golf apparel sponsor of his HyFlyers GC team on LIV Golf.
Which pro golfers wear Primo?
The headline pro relationship is Phil Mickelson's HyFlyers GC, which Primo has outfitted on LIV Golf since early 2025. Beyond the team deal, the brand turns up on individual tour players. PGA Tour winner Si Woo Kim has been seen in Primo, part of the label's steady move from creator-driven visibility to real on-course presence.
Is Primo Golf growing?
By DORMIED's tracking, Primo sits at rank 51 of 175+ brands with 14,800 monthly global searches, roughly flat over the past quarter. Its interest is spiky and content-driven, rising sharply around Horvat videos and LIV moments.
Track Primo's monthly movement on the Primo Golf Apparel brand page and the full market on the DORMIED Index. Horvat's other stake: Takomo Golf. Related question coverage: Who Owns Malbon Golf?.
