Shorts On the PGA Tour (Updated 2013, 2016)

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by shades9323

Do business men on Wall Street wear white pants and mock turtlenecks?  Do they wear hats or loudmouth pants?  Is it acceptable to go to a job interview in orange head to toe?

In the 80's maybe.....

That is a very good point though. +rep for that

We know why they wear pants though, golf is still advertised as a 'gentleman's' game.....I think eventually pants may not be required, but why do we care so much anyway?

I have seen a lot of pros wear shorts in casual rounds, but when they go to work, they wear pants, like most of us....it is what it is.

[shades9323]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

In the 80's maybe.....

That is a very good point though. +rep for that

We know why they wear pants though, golf is still advertised as a 'gentleman's' game.....I think eventually pants may not be required, but why do we care so much anyway?

I have seen a lot of pros wear shorts in casual rounds, but when they go to work, they wear pants, like most of us....it is what it is.

I don't know about you, but I don't practice for my work! And I don't do it casually either.

I'm going to leave the gentleman's game comment alone at this time.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by zeg

The attitude should be reserved for the morons who created the confusion by not being able to come up with distinct names for their organizations.

The PGA Tour is still technically licensing its name, logo, and some other things from the PGA, so I don't think they really deserve any blame there. They're the "PGA Tour" where "PGA" is "Professional Golfers Association" (of America) and who play on a Tour.

They used to be the "Tournament Players division" until they "split" but they're still tied to the PGA itself.

Originally Posted by colin007

i happen to think that shorts look just as "professional" as pants.  thats my opinion.  just like feeling that pants are more professional is an opinion.

Thing is, you're in a very, very small minority.

[turtleback]

Separate and distinct from the question of whether they should be allowed to wear shorts is the question of whether it would be wise to wear shorts.  As much as these guys are out in the sunshine I would think that so much UV exposure is not good.  Couple that with the newer lightweight pants with excellent cooling properties and it seems like pants would be the way to go even if shorts were allowed.

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by shades9323

I don't know about you, but I don't practice for my work! And I don't do it casually either.

I'm going to leave the gentleman's game comment alone at this time.

Hence the quotation marks

What I mean is when pros aren't working, they would often wear shorts, but when they go to work, they wear pants, like most of us.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by shades9323

As for the professionalism, why aren't the caddies required to wear long pants?  They are seen all the time on tv in shorts.  That goes in hand with your comment about any big, prestigious business.  Does the arguably less important person in the mail room get to wear shorts?  No, they have to wear pants too.

It's actually quite common for different levels of workers in a single company to have different dress codes. Most big, prestigious businesses who require their executives, salespeople, and any other customer-facing employees to wear suits, are ok with the engineers for example wearing Dockers, and are ok with the mailroom workers for example wearing shorts. Likewise, the caddy is doing the heavy lifting (like the manual laborers in the mailroom), is not the one giving interviews (not customer-facing), and in general is not representing the sport to the extent the golfer is (like the mailroom workers are not representing the company to the customers to the extent that the salespeople are.) Do you not see the parallels?

[colin007]

Quote:

Thing is, you're in a very, very small minority.

youre probably right.

however, i do think there are far more important things to the game of golf, like, how can we get more interest from todays younger generation.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by colin007

youre probably right.

however, i do think there are far more important things to the game of golf, like, how can we get more interest from todays younger generation.

Golf is too boring, too expensive, too hard (consider most people are rather uncoordinated), it takes too long to play a game and the people at the course often seem too elitist, stuffy, stale, and exclusionary. Is this true of all courses all the time? No, but anyone who says none of these things are factors should look at the sports/activities that are gaining in popularity with young people. Golf does not represent youth. Can this be changed? Doubtful.

[zeg]

Originally Posted by iacas

The PGA Tour is still technically licensing its name, logo, and some other things from the PGA, so I don't think they really deserve any blame there. They're the "PGA Tour" where "PGA" is "Professional Golfers Association" (of America) and who play on a Tour.

They used to be the "Tournament Players division" until they "split" but they're still tied to the PGA itself.

Ok, I didn't realize they were even that tightly connected.  I'd suspected it was a split at some point, though.  Still, given that they serve distinct purposes, they should find some other **GA acronym just to cut down on Internet arguments.

As it is, I'd naturally infer that the PGA Tour is a version of the PGA with less loft and no draw bias...

[newtogolf]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Golf is too boring, too expensive, too hard (consider most people are rather uncoordinated), it takes too long to play a game and the people at the course often seem too elitist, stuffy, stale, and exclusionary. Is this true of all courses all the time? No, but anyone who says none of these things are factors should look at the sports/activities that are gaining in popularity with young people. Golf does not represent youth. Can this be changed? Doubtful.

I doubt it can change because the majority of those involved in the sport don't want it to change.  The fact that the Masters gets the attention it does, despite Augusta National Golf Club being one of the the most exclusive clubs in the country feeds into the image that golf is a sport to be played by rich white men.

[Ernest Jones]

Originally Posted by zeg

Ok, I didn't realize they were even that tightly connected.  I'd suspected it was a split at some point, though.  Still, given that they serve distinct purposes, they should find some other **GA acronym just to cut down on Internet arguments.

As it is, I'd naturally infer that the PGA Tour is a version of the PGA with less loft and no draw bias...

LMAO at PGA tour definition. Smaller heads and harder to hit!

[shades9323]

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

It's actually quite common for different levels of workers in a single company to have different dress codes. Most big, prestigious businesses who require their executives, salespeople, and any other customer-facing employees to wear suits, are ok with the engineers for example wearing Dockers, and are ok with the mailroom workers for example wearing shorts. Likewise, the caddy is doing the heavy lifting (like the manual laborers in the mailroom), is not the one giving interviews (not customer-facing), and in general is not representing the sport to the extent the golfer is (like the mailroom workers are not representing the company to the customers to the extent that the salespeople are.) Do you not see the parallels?

Except for the caddies get plenty of tv time, so they are actually customer facing.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by shades9323

Except for the caddies get plenty of tv time, so they are actually customer facing.

As I said in my post: Not to the extent the golfers are. They aren't on screen as much, and they don't give interviews. Also, it's understood that they are exerting themselves more by virtue of carrying the bag. For these reasons and others, you can't equate the caddies with the golfers in terms of what they wear.

[Dave Gordon]

Personally I think they shouldn't. Maybe the time is right to relax this rule and give a bit of street cred to the game at a time it's needed. Collarless shirts came back and caused a stir but it pettered out.

Golf attire and equipment is already on the way to being "punked up" - loud shirts and trousers, sunglasses, sweatbands, different coloured grips, WHITE drivers, belts with buckles like dustbin lids - did I say WHITE drivers!!

Would be interesting to see how many pros given the choice would actually wear shorts?

[BruceMGF]

They shouldn't even be wearing short sleeves.  Did you ever see Vardon golfing in short sleeves?  Old Tom Morris?  I rest my case!

[Rexx]

Originally Posted by zeg

In my opinion, simply appealing to "professionalism" is a lame argument.  It's projecting your personal opinion of style with no performance-related justification.  In almost all other sports, most of the elements of the uniform or required dress are either dictated by safety of the competitor or his opponents, performance, or practical issues like making the players and their teams easily and quickly identifiable.  Even in basketball, the suits come off and clothing specific to the athletic / game requirements go on for the actual competition.  None of these criteria apply to a golfer, and IMO it's silly to let a fixation with club-style dress-casual attire to trump what could be performance-related decisions.  If a golfer is more comfortable in shorts, I'd rather see his best golf.  Sure, it's probably only a tiny effect for a very small fraction of the golfers, but still, in my ideal world performance should trump other considerations.

Ehhh... how far are you willing to take that argument?  Jorts and a wife beater okay?  Just underwear?  Anything more than "birthday suit" and you're "projecting your personal opinion of style with no performance-related justification".

[zeg]

Originally Posted by Rexx

Ehhh... how far are you willing to take that argument?  Jorts and a wife beater okay?  Just underwear?  Anything more than "birthday suit" and you're "projecting your personal opinion of style with no performance-related justification".

Me personally?  Sure, I would not have a problem with any of that.  I wouldn't necessarily encourage it, and there are safety reasons why someone probably should wear some clothing while golfing, but I'm pretty sure that civilization wouldn't crumble any faster even if the social phobia of birthday suits were repealed.

People wear clothes every day that I would never choose to wear, and I am able to cope with sharing public spaces with them.  It's no different on the golf course.

[phillyk]

I understand both sides of the argument here. But, for me personally, I feel I golf better wearing pants versus shorts, even when it's hot out (and I always walk).  I personally feel more dedicated to my game in pants, and in shorts I feel more casual and chill. I don't really know about this, but has anybody actually heard a pro golfer complain about having to wear pants during a tournament?