Boss status: Martin Kaymer wins The Players Championship in Hugo Boss

“I’m the biggest boss that you seen thus far”
— Rick Ross, “Boss”

Urban Dictionary defines boss status as, “being a little more than a man and a little less than a god.” While a bit extreme, this isn’t a bad way to describe Martin Kaymer’s game and style during his victory at The Players Championship.

Kaymer obviously subscribed to the, “Look good. Feel good. Play excellent.” motto in the first round as he blitzed the field with a record-tying 9-under par 63, while wearing apparel from fashion-performance brand, Hugo Boss. For each of the four rounds, the former world number one chose the Paddy MK polo shirt from the Hugo Boss Green Collection.

What I like about this shirt is that it offers a neo-classical style that is totally on-trend these days. The contrasting placket, collar and banded sleeve cuffs are vintage details you’d expect to find on the fairways in the 1950s, while the contrasting side inserts offer a touch of 21st Century detailing.

I’m seeing a lot of technical piques from brands these days and the MK Paddy polo fits this trend. Piques are usually a touch lighter and the weave allows air to flow through the shirt, which is obviously great for warmer months. Putting performance aside, though, what I like about the technical piques is that they look a lot like classic cotton shirts. This offers more of a sophisticated, go-anywhere look than your typical technical golf polos.

By far, my favorite look from Kaymer was Saturday’s brilliant blue MK Paddy polo paired with a white belt and white trousers. We’ve been seeing this combo a lot on Tour this year and it offers a very bright, well-balance look. This was an example of the only time we should see white belts these days — paired with white pants. Contrast this to Kaymer’s choice of the white belt for Sunday’s round, which felt a bit out-of-place. It broke up the pink shirt/black pants combo too much.

Kaymer completed his looks each day with Adidas Golf’s soon-to-be-released Adidas adicross gripmore shoes. These shoes have been getting a lot of air time over the last few weeks. In addition to Kaymer, Justin Rose and Jim Furyk sported them while in contention at The Players and Matt Kuchar wore them for a couple of rounds at the RBC Heritage. Kuch eventually won that event while wearing a pair of Ashworth Cardiff ADCs. The adicross gripmores are a bit too casual and ‘soccer shoe-ish’ for my tastes, but Tour players have adopted them at a rapid pace and are raving about their comfort and performance. Look for them to hit stores on June 1st.