We’re in the middle of a pandemic and you’re STILL arguing about dress codes?

Even in the throes of a world-altering pandemic we can rely on some golfers to recognise what’s really important.

28 Days Later has basically come true and the wider public still looks at our sport and thinks it’s coronavirus that might be the one that’s misunderstood.

A terribly optimistic friend of mine ventured that the horrible reality of our own mortality playing out on TV sets every single day might help us re-evaluate what matters.

That those ‘rules’ we’ve all slavishly lived by would be revealed for the meaningless tenets they really are.

We’d come out of this nightmare somehow spirituality cleansed and more tolerant of people and their individuality.

He envisaged a post-virus golfing world where no one would care if you took a call in the clubhouse, or meandered onto the course in a t-shirt.

I wasn’t sure whether lockdown had got to him. I’ve been around golfers for too long to know that not even the sight of motorised morgues will distract members placed next to the real tragedy of someone turning up at the golf club in coloured socks.

Who knew all it would take was for Paul Lawrie to venture that children might be allowed to wear sweatpants, or for Tyrrell Hatton to wear a hoodie at the BMW PGA Championship for social media to collectively lose its mind?

Well, me actually.

Hands up if you’ve heard about the ‘new normal’? It’s a concept that appears to have passed golf by.

We’ve accepted social distancing to get back on the course but not veering from a ‘uniform’ that makes us look like we’ve got lost in a polyester factory.

As if that’s the thing you would cling on to after all this.

The epidemic continues to kill hundreds a day and you’re moaning you might encounter someone in a hoodie while traversing the one-way system that’s going to be the route to the 1st tee.

All the while venting fury about being unable to remove flagsticks.

There’s this thing called perspective. Ever heard of it? We desperately need to get some.

Because we need to accept the world has changed drastically this year, ironed trousers or not. Society already has enough contempt for us. How about we don’t give them more ammunition?

Has the Angry Club Golfer got it right about golf dress codes? Leave a comment or tweet him.

• More on dress codes: Hatton’s hoodie causes social media uproar
• More on dress codes: Open champion Lawrie tells golf to relax
• More on dress codes: Junior coach left stunned after clothing criticism
• More on dress codes: Why it’s time to abolish the these archaic rules