Swinging into success

Mathew Magura, a lifelong golfer with a deep love for the sport, recently noticed how unreasonably expensive high-quality golf apparel had become.

“It’s such an essential part of the game to dress the part,” said the Wantage resident. “I had a baseball coach when I was younger who said, ‘Look good, feel good and play good.’ “

He felt that looking and feeling good shouldn’t mean spending tons of money.

Driven by the desire to provide quality clothing that is comfortable and affordable, he decided to take a chance.

On Feb. 27, Magura launched Mathew John Golf, a golf apparel brand dedicated to providing “premium golf apparel without the premium price tags.”

In the past six months, the business has grown and thrived.

“I do everything for the business,” said Magura. “I do the graphic design; I build the website; I run the marketing campaigns.”

Because he has been working as a digital operations specialist at NBC Universal for the past six years, he had some of the skills needed to run the business efficiently.

“I’ve definitely built up a lot of business skills, customer satisfaction skills, public speaking, speaking with consumers ... . It’s all kind of led me to be in the position I am now,” he said.

Magura’s family has been a large factor in his success. “They’re always encouraging me to follow my dreams and never lose sight of the vision that I see for the company,” he said.

“Throughout my life, they’ve instilled a lot of values that I pride myself on and carry over into the business. You know, working hard, staying organized, balancing things, resilience.”

Giving back

His family’s desire to give back to the community inspired him to do the same with his company.

On Aug. 12, Mathew John Golf hosted Swing for a Cure, a charity golf outing for the Lupus Foundation of America. Magura chose the Lupus Foundation because he dealt with symptoms of the disease for three years before being diagnosed in 2022.

Lupus took a heavy toll on his body, he explained. “My goal with the golf outing was to utilize my platform in the golf community to raise awareness while helping improve research and treatment so that one day, nobody will have to battle the same struggles I did.”

The outing raised more than $1,500 for the foundation, and Magura plans to make it an annual event.

“We are looking forward to making an impact in the years to come,” he said. “Down the line, I’d like to host multiple golf outings throughout the year. Maybe throughout various locations throughout the country and give back to the community in different ways through different organizations.”

His company also is sponsoring Chris Matthews, a high-level amateur golfer in St. Louis, Mo. Matthews has won seven amateur tournaments this year and will complete in the Golfweek Amateur Tour National Championship Oct 18-20 in Hilton Head, S.C.

Learning to balance

Although Mathew John Golf has become a successful business, it hasn’t been easy.

Along with designing the clothing and running marketing campaigns, Magura also handles production and sales - managing every aspect of his business.

“It definitely gets to be a lot, but you can ask any entrepreneur out there and it’s always about balancing everything and focusing on the task at hand and not letting little things get to you.”

Making mistakes is inevitable when running a business, he noted.

“You’re going to make mistakes and that is honestly the best thing for you. It might not always seem like it, but you’re going to learn a lot from it,. Seeing setbacks as setbacks is never going to help you. You got to see them as opportunities and grow off them.”

Within the next few years, he’d like to see Mathew John Golf expand, first locally, then on a national level. “I’d like to see people recognize the brand for our commitment to quality style and the premium material and hopefully gain respect for the price point.”

For information, go online to mathewjohngolf.com

CORRECTION: The town where Magura lives was incorrect in an earlier version of this article. He also was incorrectly identified in a photo.