G/Fore chief executive officer Scott Ruerup has built his opening mandate around a single number: a 38% sales lift year-to-date at the Peter Millar-owned luxury golf label.

Ruerup took the role in January after Suzy Biszantz's exit. Peter Millar made the appointment public last month. The next priority, Ruerup said, is converting that growth into a lifestyle business that extends well past the tee.

What kind of business is G/Fore today?

G/Fore was founded in 2011 by Mossimo Giannulli, creator of the Mossimo brand, around a colored-glove novelty. The label has since expanded into apparel and golf-inspired footwear. Peter Millar, owned by Richemont, acquired G/Fore in 2018. Giannulli exited the brand last year.

Footwear now accounts for 50% of the business. Women's contributes roughly 35%. The remainder spans men's apparel, with golf skorts, cashmere polos and cashmere sweaters among the strongest sellers. Distribution still runs primarily through about 1,700 green-grass shops.

What changes is Ruerup making?

Ruerup spent nearly 17 years at Oxxford Clothes before joining Peter Millar in 2011 as a vice president. He rose to president over a 13-year tenure. His acceptance of the G/Fore post required one structural shift: relocation of headquarters from Los Angeles to Raleigh, N.C.

The team moved into an industrial space a short walk from Peter Millar's campus. Finance, supply chain and shipping now sit inside the parent company's back office. Ruerup called the integration "almost seamless."

To staff the expanded mandate, Ruerup has hired Adam Rutledge, most recently at The North Face, as senior vice president of strategy and operations. Tyler Copeland joins as head of creative marketing. Design continues under Thomas Harvey, a London-trained executive who has held senior roles at Theory, Original Penguin and Perry Ellis.

How will the product mix shift?

Ruerup described the move as a shift from "performance heavy on the golf course" toward cotton-rich lifestyle pieces. The footwear business, currently the largest category, will broaden next year with G/Fore's first off-course "street shoes."

"We're trying not to be so performance heavy on the golf course," Ruerup said. "Our goal is to come out on the 19th hole with a really cool, fresh, modern, contemporary look, not just another performance polo."

He added: "We were born in L.A., we were shaped in golf, and our legacy is style. If we stick to that each and every day, we'll get there."

What does the channel roadmap look like?

The label operates four directly owned stores on Madison Avenue in New York, Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills and Scottsdale. Ruerup described them as "think tanks" for measuring consumer response to lifestyle product. The latest wholesale move added 15 Nordstrom doors.

Specialty-store accounts, long anchored by Ruerup's three-decade rolodex, are queued next.

"I have nice relationships with those stores from the past 30 years but we haven't approached them as yet because I want to ensure that we give them the best foot forward for that environment, which will be more of the lifestyle component," he said.

The executive rejected revenue targets as a frame. "At Peter Millar, we never talked about revenue," Ruerup said. "We were thoughtful. We never wavered."

Whether the lifestyle extension lifts cotton sourcing volumes, opens new compliance work, or pushes G/Fore into lead-time trade-offs will hinge on how quickly the off-course mix overtakes the 80% golf-weighted base in 2025 and beyond.