William Murray Golf is a golf and lifestyle apparel brand built around actor Bill Murray and his five brothers. Founded in 2016 and launched in spring 2017, the brand makes polos, button-downs, pants, outerwear, and accessories defined by bold prints, playful designs, and an irreverent attitude toward a sport that often takes itself too seriously. It is headquartered in East Austin, Texas, and has grown into one of the more recognizable names in lifestyle golf apparel.
The brand was co-founded by Kerry Michaels and Brandon Barrett, who met while working together at theCHIVE, the entertainment website, back in 2015. The two shared a passion for golf and a similar sense of humor, and they developed a brand pitch with Bill Murray as the face. After some convincing and a chance encounter with Bill's brother Joel Murray, Michaels and Barrett struck a deal with Bill and the Murray brothers in 2016. The brand launched the following spring through a partnership with Resignation Media, the company behind theCHIVE, and the broader Chive Media Group.
The Murray Brothers Connection
The brand is not a licensing deal where a celebrity name is rented and forgotten. Bill Murray and his brothers are genuinely woven into the brand's identity. The Murray brothers grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago caddying and playing golf, and all of them were inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame. Their collective sensibility, loose, funny, unpretentious, but genuinely respectful of the game, is the creative foundation of everything the brand makes. The name William Murray comes from Bill's full name, and the brand voice channels the same charm that made Bill a beloved figure in golf circles, particularly through his long association with the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and his famously unscripted on-course antics.
The product reflects that personality. Where most golf apparel sells aspiration and seriousness, William Murray Golf sells fun. The prints are loud, the designs are conversation-starters, and the marketing leans into the idea that golf should be enjoyed rather than endured. The clothing is still built from real performance fabrics with moisture-wicking and stretch, so it functions as golf apparel, but the entire point is to look like you are having a better time than everyone else on the course.
The Business
The brand has raised roughly $7 million in funding over its life and reportedly doubled its business year over year through its growth phase. It operates as an internet-first, direct-to-consumer brand, selling through its own website, through theChivery, and through an official Amazon storefront, with select third-party retail distribution. The East Austin headquarters reflects the brand's identity as a culturally-aware operation rather than a traditional golf company, positioned closer to the lifestyle and entertainment world than to the equipment-driven golf industry.
The DORMIED Take
William Murray Golf occupies a specific and defensible position: it is the golf brand for people who want to signal that they do not take themselves too seriously. That sounds simple, but it is hard to execute authentically, and the brand pulls it off because the Murray connection is real. The brothers' genuine golf history and Bill's actual cultural standing give the brand a credibility that manufactured celebrity ventures lack.
The brand sits in the same broad lifestyle-golf category as Malbon, William Murray, and the streetwear-adjacent labels, but it competes on humor and personality rather than streetwear credibility or fashion-forward design. That is a narrower lane, but it is a durable one, because there will always be golfers who would rather be funny than fashionable. Nearly a decade in, the brand has proven the niche is real and sustainable.
