We’ve come a long way. You’re no longer at risk of being escorted off the property in many clubs if you dare to don a hoodie.
Turn up in Tiger’s mock turtle – a 20-year-old fashion statement in its own right – and you’ll be tolerated by the membership.
But even though progress has been made (just check out the way many clubs use the words ‘golf attire’ now to allow players to express their fashion sense a little more liberally), there are certain things some can’t bear to let go and which still make their clubhouses a foreboding place.
So let’s take a look at a trio of outdated golf club dress code rules and see if we can consign them to history…
Golf club dress code rules: Which three would we get rid of right away?
The jacket and tie
I haven’t worn a tie to work in more than 15 years. I haven’t worn a collared shirt in 10. I own one pair of black dress shoes and have one suit. They’re only worn for a single purpose. Go on, have a guess.
That’s right. Sometimes I have to wear them at a golf club. Some make you don them from the get go. Some make you put them on for a meal. Some even make you slip into them after the big hand reaches a certain hour on the clock face.
I can walk into a Michelin starred restaurant in casual dress but trying to sit down for a decidedly average pie and chips served up 50 ways after a round of golf somehow requires the solemnity of struggling to tie a Windsor knot.
Utter madness. It’s a golf club, not Downton Abbey.
Knee high socks
Explain this to me. Honestly, I’m all ears. If you want to sum up golf’s image problem – for men at least – it boils down to whether someone’s socks stay at the ankle or the knee.
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There is a reason the tabloid news sites love this fodder. It’s because it’s completely ridiculous. Then we manage to make it even worse by losing our minds about the colour.
Just check out the worldwide headlines generated after Mark Wahlberg had the temerity to turn up at Sydney club Elanora in black hosiery.
But clubs love digging their heels in.
“Short, dark socks look naff so avoid them at all costs,” says the dress code at one UK club. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this was Paris Fashion Week.
It would be laughable were it not for all the stuff clubs deem perfectly acceptable as outerwear. There must a global shortage of red and yellow trousers. Don’t even get me started on frayed, beer-stained, washed once a year jumpers that are apparently fine.
Of all the things you can start a row over, losing your cool over the length of socks and their colour is mind-blowingly dumb. You will never convince me otherwise.
Tucked in shirts
I have seen members running across fairways to tackle golfers for this. They weren’t even deliberately doing it. The front had just slipped out a little and yet this required a poor man’s Usain Bolt to go as fast as his little legs would carry him to dish out an admonishment.
I’ll tell you what’s worse than an untucked shirt. Me having to watch your billion-pint belly trying to remain contained within that belt. It’s a miracle of physics. Maybe a little room would do you good.
What would they make of Andy Murray? Sorry, that’s SIR Andy Murray. Imagine chastising one of Britain’s greatest ever sportspeople for treating his shirt as outerwear. I mean, how dare he?
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Yet this one, again, ruffles the feathers. Remember the furore when Rickie Fowler wore a Puma Hawaiian-style golf shirt that was specifically designed not be tucked in?
Or how social media went off on one when JJ Spaun let it all hang loose at the Tournament of Champions?
It’s just another one of those pernickety little things that some people like to use to denigrate others.
Now have your say on golf club dress code rules
What do you think about these golf club dress code rules? Do you agree with Steve or are you seething at his demands? Let us know with a comment on X.
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