Charcoal Golf brings an urban contemporary style to golf illustration at Bethpage Black Golf Course brining the 18th hole to life in new ways.
Charcoal Golf
The most unique Bethpage Black Golf Course memorabilia leading into the Ryder Cup won’t be found in golf shops or merchandise tents — it comes from Charcoal Golf.
The rugged and brash illustrations of top-down hole designs come from Charcoal Golf’s artist and illustrator, Mark Rivard. His artwork bridges golf’s traditional, prim-and-proper image with a street- and urban-inspired aesthetic. Rivard’s renditions of famous golf holes are clearly recognizable, yet possess a gritty, almost unfinished quality, with geometric patterns intermingling with bold colors and blurred lines.
“As I started to investigate golf art, I saw a lot of the same. There weren’t many painters, and the ones that did exist didn’t push the envelope toward the newer vibe of golf. I wanted to paint something more urban contemporary,” Rivard said.
His Bethpage Black piece brings the 18th hole to life. Tillinghast’s sprawling fairway bunkers on the right and left dominate the center of the canvas, while the large putting surface at the top balances with shaded tee boxes, geometric shapes, and the iconic Bethpage Black sign at the bottom.
Predominantly displayed on first tee of Bethpage Black, “The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.”
Charcoal Golf
This isn’t Rivard’s first golf illustration. He has previously brought courses like Landmand, Sweetens Cove, Sand Hills, Sutton Bay, The Club at Golden Valley, and Perry Maxwell’s holes at Prairie Dunes to life on canvas.
Rivard, once an adventure sports junkie with a passion for skiing, turned to art after an injury in his 20s left him immobile. He began creating rideable skateboard artwork and soon caught the attention of Sharpie Markers. In 2011, he launched Do Rad Things, a collaboration with Sharpie that provided education and art supplies to kids interested in art.
“I always played golf on the side, and as I got older, I wanted to play a little more and a little more. In 2020, I played 70 rounds — and from there, I was a golfer,” Rivard said.
Mark Rivard, artist for Charcoal Golf, sits off a green site for a quick sketch. He looks to merge his background in skateboard art to the golf world.
Charcoal Golf
When the Covid-19 pandemic halted his education work and cancelled events, Rivard found himself at home looking for ways to stay busy. His solution: $10 sketches. For $10, he would send buyers a custom hand-drawn sketch. The idea took off, as both the demand and the complexity of the drawings grew. One of those requests was his first golf hole: the 17th at Edinburgh USA.
“If anyone gave me one word and their USPS mailing address, I would send them a 10-second sketch. I woke up the next morning and had 60 requests,” Rivard said.
After sharing his golf sketches on Instagram, Rivard was soon inundated with requests for golf holes. Initially priced at $150 and requiring several hours each, the model proved unsustainable. The time commitment was costly, and the rushed work didn’t meet his artistic standards. That’s when he pivoted, focusing on larger, detailed, urban-contemporary golf artwork — and Charcoal Golf was born.
Today, the Charcoal Golf team consists of Rivard, printer Russ Olson, and sales director Patrick Jacobson. Together, they take on commissioned work for golf courses and continue to create one-of-a-kind custom pieces.