The Lighter Side, Volume One: Golf Fashion

It is often said that one of the most alluring facets of recreational golf is the close connection we have to the professional game, something unique in comparison to other spectator sports. We can play the same courses, use the same equipment, and, thanks to the handicap system, even play against our idols if the opportunity ever arises.

But there is yet another way in which we can emulate our professional heroes: we can dress like them, too! Not sure you can? Well, I happen to have spent more than my fair share of time thinking about golf fashion (probably to the detriment of my swing), and so if you’re not Marty Hackel or one of the cast of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” you may learn a thing or two from what I have to say about golf’s sartorial side.

Fashion has always been a big part of golf. Photographs of early U.S. and British Open championships show golfers in three-piece tweed suits. Bobby Jones wore tailored shirts, ties, and dress-quality shoes, and Ben Hogan took it a step further with custom, tailor-made shirts, hats, trousers, and shoes, made of the finest materials by overseas craftsmen. The Hawk would never be caught on a golf course without having the entire ensemble creased, pressed, and spit polished.

How about Doug Sanders, who brought “flamboyant” out of La Cage Aux Folles and into the Old Course? Or the seventies… ah, the bell bottoms, double-knit polyester, plaids, and the cross-pollenated golf shirts (remember those abominations with polo buttons, pockets, and dress collars?). I could go on and on (the cotton, khaki era of the late eighties/early nineties set new heights in boredom), but you get the idea. Without the team uniforms, city affiliations, and animal nicknames of other sports, golfers have always been free to show their style in clothing.

Modern Fashion
Modern golf fashion is a fusion of new and old. On the one hand, we have a return to prominence of non-natural fibers, although admittedly today they look much more natural than their 1970’s ancestors. The so-called “tech” fabrics so common in shirts and to some degree trousers are really various evolutions of the old double knits of the seventies. I remember joking about a girl who wore polyester to our junior prom that you could spill a glass of wine on the bodice of her dress and it would run right off onto the floor, like water off a freshly waxed car. Today, this same principle keeps us far more comfortable golfing than we’ve ever been. Remember how heavy those old knit cotton polos would feel, soaked with sweat on a hot day? Today, the tech fabrics wick away that moisture, keeping us cool and avoiding that rumpled, wet dishrag look. This is a good thing.

But there are some negatives about tech fabrics. They are, after all, non-natural fibers, and the cheaper varieties of these look, well, a little iffy to say the least. Also, although these are washable fabrics, they don’t seem to clean and launder as thoroughly as good old cotton, and they can get a little funky smelling after a while. Some also snag like old polyester. Finally, some of the designers seem to have gone a bit overboard with cuts and textures in a very modern, “athletic” look, and I can’t help but think that in a short time, we’re going to be looking at some of these fashion creations with the same skeptical eye that we began training on bell bottoms in the early eighties.

Another downside to many tech fabrics, microfibers, etc., are that they are thinner and hang differently on our bodies than the various cotton, polo style fabrics. And by “hang differently,” in general I mean that they tend to hug our body contours more than the slightly more stiff, full-bodied nature of classic polo cottons. My wife is constantly complaining about this, pointing out that we really don’t need to see Phil Mickelson’s C-cups every week, or every contour of John Daly’s or Tim Herron’s table muscle. If you’re fit and cut, you’ve got nothing to worry about, I guess, but for the other 99.999756% of us, modern golf clothing can sometimes be unflattering to that cubicle-honed form. And even the most fit among us can sometimes be betrayed by these fabrics – who couldn’t help but notice Tiger’s nipples on display at Oakmont. Duct tape, anyone?

Today’s Varieties
Today’s professional golfers seem to be sortable into three basic fashion categories: the jocks, the stylers, and the clueless. The jocks, as you might expect, are often the young, fit, strapping guys, many of whom seem to be TaylorMade guys, although that’s not a rule. Anyway, they are usually decked out with the most modern and cutting technology in clothing out there. Tech fabrics are the rule, often close fitting, with a preponderance of cutting-edge styles in shirts and pants, and of course vibrant, ostentatious colors. Mock neck shirts, shirts with zippered fronts, bright piping, and often irregular, avant garde patterns and asymmetric, oblique seam patterns are the rule. All of this (complete with the color-coordinated hats and shoes, of course) looks great, or at least works, if you happen to be Sergio or Retief or Camilo, but to be honest, I find this jock look to be a bit too “matchy matchy,” a bit too gym aerobic-wear, and definitely too in your face. If it’s your thing, fine, but heed one piece of advice: don’t pick this as your style without an athletic game to back it up.

The prototype “styler” golfer on tour today is Jim Furyk. The look can be either classic or contemporary (Furyk leans toward the latter), but with design features and material use that echoes mainstream fashion. Furyk’s full button front, classic color, smartly tailored shirts compliment his long, thin frame, and would look as good at a backyard barbecue or summer party at the club as they do on the golf course. My favorite styler golfer was Keith Clearwater in the early nineties. He probably bordered on being too cool for golf, but his choice of fabrics, patterns, and colors set a pretty high standard that few have matched. I was never crazy about Greg Norman’s look, but you could also put him in the styler category, and he always looked fantastic. Most styler golfers share the Hogan/Jones tradition of the highest possible standard in sumptuous materials and expert tailoring.

I think one advantage of being a styler is that any of us can pull it off. Look for classic cuts and styles with enhanced natural fibers, such as treated cottons, cotton-synthetic blends, and microfibers in colors that compliment your skin tones, hair color, etc. (You might want to bring your wife along for this part.) Another obvious advantage is that if you sink $600 in a few of this sort of golf outfit, you will also have wardrobe choices for social events, casual Fridays at work, etc. You can’t exactly do this with a pair of Sergio Garcia flaming red trousers.

Styling can be overdone. I’m talking, of course, about the ultra-modern, avant garde style of J. Lindberg and similar designers, popularized first by Jesper Parnevik, and now or recently worn by a number of pros, including Charles Howell and Aaron Baddeley. I’m not sure who makes Ian Poulter’s clothes (Dennis Rodman? The ghost of Liberace?), but sometimes you wonder if this look is more “mating ritual” than professional golf. I don’t like these extreme styles, and although they may be cutting edge and unique, they just don’t seem to fit our game.

As for the clueless in fashion, well some things can’t be helped, I guess. Not everyone is interested in clothes, of course, and I certainly don’t think we should look down on someone simply because they don’t look like they spent an hour thinking about their next golf outfit. All I will say is that even if you aren’t a clothes horse, there is no reason to show up on a golf course without neat, clean, properly fit clothing. It’s worth spending at least a few minutes to insure you don’t look like you slept in your khakis and wiped your windshield with your shirt tail.

Shoes
The last area I want to touch on is shoes. Women are supposed to be shoe obsessed, but I know more than a few guys who collect golf shoes with a passion rivaling Imelda Marcos. I love golf shoes, and modern styles are so user-friendly in terms of fit, performance, and comfort, it’s hard not to want to own several pairs. In fact, there are so many choices in both the “dress shoe” and “sport shoe” genres, from so many manufacturers at so many price points, I don’t know how any avid golfer can exist with only one pair of shoes. My advice: four pairs of shoes, three of the dress shoe style and one sport shoe. Don’t worry, your wife or girlfriend will probably love buying you new shoes. In the dress shoe category, you need a white, brown, and black choice, and the athletic shoe style can be any color or pattern that suits you. Shoes are highly individual, in that there are infinite variations in the basic shape (the “last”), shape, cut and padding in the upper, etc., so be sure to try on many pairs and don’t buy anything that doesn’t feel really good right out of the box.

That’s all I have for now. If you’re thinking “golf is hard enough, please don’t ask me to sweat over clothes,” well, I guess I can see your point. But if you’re married and have to obtain a “kitchen pass” to spend money on golf, I’d hazard a guess you’ll have an easier time persuading the Mrs. to allow you to upgrade the wardrobe than the driver. And while improvement in your golf game can’t be bought in a store, a better look always can. See you on the links, and as we used to say in the Air Force, “look sharp!”

Photo Credit: © Getty.