the original rainsuits assigned to the american
ryder cup team at celtic manor did not keep
the players dry—an embarrassing situation
that called into question the competence of the
u.s. operation in wales. what isn’t as certain
was whether the blame for the suits’ failure
belonged to the company that made them, sun
mountain, or someone else. in a press release
after the debacle during friday’s opening session, sun mountain said it had “been designing
and selling outerwear for more than two decades.” roll your eyes if you want, but the fact
is sun mountain didn’t just forget how to make
rainsuits that work. what happened? here’s the
prevailing view: lisa pavin’s weird design happened. she wanted names on the backs of the
jackets and stripes on the pants and sleeves.
those accoutrements had to be embroidered,
which meant, in effect, poking dozens of tiny
holes into the fabric, rendering the rainsuits vulnerable in a downpour—and there were plenty
of those last week (players were complaining
as early as tuesday about the rainsuits). so
why didn’t sun mountain explain this to pavin?
supposedly the company did—there were more
than 20 meetings between sun mountain and
the pavins—but in the end, lisa got the design
she wanted. and the u.s. team got soaked.
06leaky rainsuits
ross kinnaird/getty images
contents // 10 things // ryder cup //pga tour //champions tour //equipment //tim rosaforte
