Nobody is going to say anything. That's the thing about a cap. It sits at eye level for four hours and not one person in your group will mention it.

But they've seen it. And what they've seen isn't a cap that's been well used. It's a cap with a white line across the front.

You stop seeing it because you put it on in a dark hallway every Saturday morning. They see it in daylight, from three feet away, for four hours.

The uncomfortable comparison

Here's what makes it worse. Your playing partner probably bought his cap around the same time you bought yours. Same shop, same season, sometimes the same one.

His still looks like a cap. Yours looks like it's been through something.

The difference isn't how much golf you've played. It's what happened between rounds.

The salt is only there because the cap has never been washed. And it's never been washed because washing it feels like a gamble — which, done the usual way, it is.

Why nobody washes them

So the cap stays as it is, and every Saturday it looks slightly worse than it did the Saturday before.

What actually fixes it

NordCap is a rigid frame shaped like a cap. The cap goes inside, the frame closes around it, and the whole thing goes into the machine with the rest of your wash.

A ribbed grid along the front holds the brim in its curve through the whole cycle, including the spin. The frame takes the impacts so the cap doesn't. And because it's open ribs rather than solid panels, water and detergent still reach the fabric — so the salt actually comes out.

Next Saturday

Nobody will say anything about that either. Nobody comments on a cap that looks fine — that's rather the point.

You just stop being the one in the group whose cap has a white line across it. And you keep the cap you actually like, instead of buying a replacement you didn't need.

A decent golf cap costs about forty. The frame costs less and lasts every cap you'll ever own.

Questions people ask in the store