Dress Codes: Good or Bad for the Game?

[VOX]

There is a cost to proper dress. I taught my 11 year old son years ago to always take off his hat when he enters a clubhouse (or any building fot that matter). The good news is that he always remebers to take it off. The bad news is that I replace a lot of lost/forgotten hats. In truth, I have left a few of my own behind over the years.

I am always amazed to see grown men eating in a dining room or restaurant who don't know enough to remove their hats.

[colin007]

i often tell folks, more than often young men, who when they ask if they can play along and i see they are wearing shorts, tell them a quick curt "no".

I dont know if you'll ever read this, but based on this comment, I think you're a total douchebag. I hope I never meet you or ever have the misfortune of playing with you. BTW, check your avatar. Shorts? T-shirt? lol...

[Fourputt]

I dont know if you'll ever read this, but based on this comment, I think you're a total douchebag. I hope I never meet you or ever have the misfortune of playing with you.

Boy, ain't that the truth. No shorts??? That's a recipe for heat stroke in midsummer triple digit temps.

[kingofcars08]

Im all about dress code for golf. I dont care about the 9-hole chip in putts, wear your fubu jeans and sandals out there, cuz you wont catch me there playing a 6 hour round. Golf is one of the few sports left with respect, so I hope never to see jeans or t shirts when I pull up to a clubhouse. I could play any sport, but I like to be around other people with slacks and nice polos, because you know you are playing a game with values. Who says your shorts need to be jean shorts or cargo, check out tommy bahama, they make a great collection of shorts. If you are going to wear this crap, please go play the muni courses at 3 pm so we dont have to wait for you to line up bogey putts.

[RocktimusPryme]

Considering this is on the 11th page nobody is going to read this, but Im going to say it anyway.

DRESS CODES ARE BAD IN ALMOST ANY CASE

The only reason I put the almost in there is because I do think children should be shielded from someone wearing something with a really lude phrase on it.

But if I want to play Pebble Beach in an Iron Maiden shirt I should be able to. Theres no reason for you to judge a persons character or whether or not they belong somewhere by their choice in clothing, just like there isnt for the color of their skin. Period.

[colin007]

If you are going to wear this crap, please go play the muni courses at 3 pm so we dont have to wait for you to line up bogey putts.

You're an 8. You've got plenty of bogey putts to line up yourself...

[flopdarock]

i think dress codes should all depend on the course... the swankier the course the more common sense should tell you to dress more appropriate... the low end hackers courses i wouldnt care if ppl were naked... altho that might make the experience a lil better at times...

there is a muni here that has signs in the parking lot "appropriate golf attire" yet everyone wears whatever and that place is always busy even on crappy days... doesnt bother me in the least... but its hillarious when i have on "appropriate attire" and ppl in jeans an tennisshoes are asking me for swing tips... mind you i play to a 12-14 hdcp and tell them im not the guy to be asking advice from...

then the course i actually work at turns away ppl even on dead days due to the dress code... taking a loss of revenue over the integrity of the game

[Fourputt]

then the course i actually work at turns away ppl even on dead days due to the dress code... taking a loss of revenue over the integrity of the game

How does dress affect the "integrity of the game"? Am I somehow less honorable when I'm wearing jeans than I am when I'm wearing my micro-fiber slacks? The only thing your course is doing is policing adherence to their own dress code, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the integrity of the game, its etiquette or its honor.

I know plenty of spiffy dressers who still deliberately cheat on the rules (foot wedges from trouble spots, questionable drops, etc.). I don't play with them, at least not for anything but a casual round, but I do know of several such players. They are the ones whose integrity I question, not the guy who comes out in clean blue jeans and logo t-shirt, then plays by the rules as best he knows them. When I play at my father-in-law's course, I see apparel that would shock the finer sensibilities of some of the stuffier members here, yet without those guys you wouldn't have food on your table. He and his friends have been playing golf for 40+ years on a little 9 hole course that they helped build with their own farm equipment. It's a gem that sits on the semi-arid plains of northeastern Colorado, halfway between two small towns that most of you will never hear of. The members (who have just put in a half day of farming) will show up early on a summer afternoon in bib overalls and t-shirt, play 9 holes, then head back to the field for another 5 or 6 hours of work before sundown. These guys are the ones who are upholding the true roots of the game of golf. These are the modern day equivalent of the Scottish shepherds who originated the game by hitting rocks around the linksland pasture with their crooks while the sheep grazed. They have a passion for the game that is unfettered by the trappings that so many who have posted in this thread seem to feel are necessary to define the game. This is truly where the rich tradition and history of the game is being maintained, not in the posh clubs where the members are essentially isolated from the real world. Those club golfers are welcome to their attitudes and codes and artificial superiority, but don't make the mistake of thinking that those things have a significant impact on the "integrity of the game". Integrity comes from the heart and mind of the player not from the clothes he wears or how much he pays to play.

[Smallville]

+1 Fourputt.

I'm more interested in people taking care of the course than what they are wearing.

Great post.

[NM Golf]

I'm with you Flopdarock. I think dress has a lot to do with the integrity of well most things really.

I will simply say this, I care enough and think it is important enough to dress appropriately when I play golf. Golf is a special sport, the best sport I have ever played. It is a game of honor. I will in turn honor it by making sure I dress nicely when I go out and play. This is especially true on nicer courses.

Just like I dress nice when I go to a fancy restaurant, go to church, or to a special event. I like to dress nice though. Its about having some class.

If some yahoo wants to wear a metallica t-shirt and swimming trunks to the course, I won't say anything, but I also don't want to play him either. Chances are we wouldn't get along too well on the golf course.

[Smallville]

Just like I dress nice when I go to a fancy restaurant, go to church, or to a special event. I like to dress nice though. Its about having some class.

A fancy restaurant . . . OK I give you that one. Church? You're going to look down on someone in Church for any reason? I'm glad they are at church. I don't care what people wear to go there. That's ridiculous. I think people have more class than you give them credit for. It's comments about having more class than someone else like that that make me think less of people. Go ask the priest/preacher/minister what's more important: going to church at all or staying home because you aren't dressed "classy". I bet I know what his answer is. And if it's different than what I think it would be, then I am glad I don't go to that church.

[Fourputt]

I'm with you Flopdarock. I think dress has a lot to do with the integrity of well most things really.

Honor is a personality characteristic, not a product of what comes out of your closet. I will never understand the shallow attitude that says a fancy dresser has more honor and integrity than a casual dresser. There is no logic whatsoever behind such a belief. Look at Madoff, or Blagojevich for the evidence.

[flopdarock]

i understand what fourputt was saying... and sorry if im lumped in the snob category... but the way ppl dress like nm golf was saying tells you alot even tho you might be judging someone that you do not know... as i said before... it all depends on the course you play... farmers course/muni/country club...
dressing appropriate at certain times is a sign of respect... the guy that dresses like a slob at work gets hassled more often by the boss even tho he works hard... the ppl that dress like thugs get hassled by police cuz they look suspicious... its the stereotype... i didnt create it... its just there
and its not "my rule"... its the courses rule... and i tend to respect it

[schapman]

I don't really care about what people are wearing so much as how they act on a course. I'd rather see a well behaved, divot fixing guy in a wife beater and basketball shoes than a guy dressed to the nines getting drunk and leaving the course a mess.

[Fourputt]

i understand what fourputt was saying... and sorry if im lumped in the snob category... but the way ppl dress like nm golf was saying tells you alot even tho you might be judging someone that you do not know... as i said before... it all depends on the course you play... farmers course/muni/country club...

I didn't call anyone a snob, nor did I say that I wouldn't respect the rules of the course I intend to play at. All I said was that honor and integrity have nothing to do with how one dresses. However, judging a person by his dress IS a form of snobbery, however difficult it may be to avoid. I confess to having my own prejudices in that regard. Stereotyping is something that most of us just can't avoid, at least to a certain extent. But in the most extreme cases, the stereotype is appropriate because the person looks like they do in order to fit that type... i.e. the goth look, or the punk with weird spiked hair and piercing everywhere you can make a hole.

But to say that person has no integrity just because he is wearing jeans to play golf in cold weather... well, I guess 3/4 of the guys who play at my home course this time of year are without honor. Even the head pro often wears jeans to work this time of year. I guess NM Golf would refuse to play with him.

[flopdarock]

if strip clubs can have strict dress codes(which i find absolutely humorous) then im sure there is nothing wrong with a course to have one and there is nothing wrong with courses that dont

[Fourputt]

if strip clubs can have strict dress codes(which i find absolutely humorous) then im sure there is nothing wrong with a course to have one and there is nothing wrong with courses that dont

Where DO you live???? No strip club around here has a code that I'm aware of... then I don't generally frequent such places either.

[Spackler-esque]

A fancy restaurant . . . OK I give you that one. Church? You're going to look down on someone in Church for any reason? I'm glad they are at church. I don't care what people wear to go there. That's ridiculous. I think people have more class than you give them credit for. It's comments about having more class than someone else like that that make me think less of people. Go ask the priest/preacher/minister what's more important: going to church at all or staying home because you aren't dressed "classy". I bet I know what his answer is. And if it's different than what I think it would be, then I am glad I don't go to that church.

There's a reason the phrase "Sunday best" exists... Yes, now it seems ridiculously class-ist (ugh, stop the P.C. BULL

! PLEASE!), but at least at one time it was a sign of respect for the institution. Unfortunately our society seems to have lost the desire to be respectable in many, many ways. That includes at church, which, as an agnostic, includes the golf course, IMO.