John Wells

If you haven't watched golf in the last two years, you've been missing out. Golf fashion is getting sophisticated.  The days of John Daly's saggy pants and untucked shirts are out.  Form-fitting clothes with fun colors are in.   And there's no better place to get your golf shopping in now than at the fashion-forward John Wells' Golf Shop at Brookside, next to the Rose Bowl.

"Rosasen [the clothing brand] is in," owner John Wells says.  "It's kind of a young guy's clothes — a tighter fit.  Golf clothes have been really big since '88-'89, when Ashburn came out, but with Tiger [Woods] wearing closer-fitting clothes, all of a sudden, clothes are getting tighter."

The form-fitting golf outfit looks good any time of day.

Rosasen (pronounced ro-SASS-in) currently has a long line of happy-colored clothing — powder blues, tangerines and purples — sometimes marked by a signature use of argyle prints on their shirts.  

"I'd say it's a European flavor line," Wells says.

Wells has most of his fashion bases covered, carrying Majer, Rosasen, Nike, Tommy Bahama and Tiger Woods' apparel for men.  

Women's has an even wider selection, with brands like Polo, Jamie Saddock, Cutter and Buck, Tail, Nike and Sport Haley.

Golf fashion looks great off the course. Its dressy casualness makes for perfect everywhere-wear.

What's nice about the selection, though, is that most of the clothes look nice enough that they're not just strictly limited to golf.  Most of it looks downright proper for a night on the town.  

Wells bought the golf shop at Brookside in 1980 and has owned it ever since, along with a couple others in the Los Angeles area.  Wells says he was pushed to golf fashion early on because, well, the customers demanded it.

"At that time, in 1980," Wells says, "the place to eat at lunch time and for Sunday brunch was Brookside.  There was no 'Old Town.'  This was the place to come.  We were packed here for lunch and I remember one day, someone stuck their head in and said, 'that's just golf stuff.'"

"Well, after that, we went into selling clothing.  We ended up selling over 100 sports coats — this is in the early '80s — in a month at that time.  We started carrying all kinds of street shoes ... we started carrying a lot of fashion clothing."

Luckily for Pasadena, Wells hasn't looked back.

For more information on John Wells' Golf Shop, visit the store at the Brookside Golf Course — the one right next to the Rose Bowl — or call (626) 796-8151.

John Wells Golf Shop
1133 Rosemont Ave., Pasadena. (626) 796-8151