‘Fore and After
In the 40 years that Mike Lichty has been playing golf, he has seen his fellow golfers overcome a serious fashion handicap.
“Golf clothing has changed dramatically,” says Lichty, 50, general manager of the Tustin Ranch Golf Club. “Golf shirts have gone from very simple, snug polo shirts in the ‘50s and ‘60s to very full GQ shirts. As for golf pants and shorts, we didn’t have them. You wore your work pants.”
Today golfers have style, thanks to younger, trendier players who refuse to wear shiny shirts with pointy collars and loud stripes. More men and women ages 18 to 40 have taken up the sport; they now outnumber 60-plus 60-and-older golfers by about 6 million to 2 million, according to the National Golf Foundation.
“Even before Tiger Woods went on the pro circuit, there was this whole other group of younger guys coming into golf,” says Dennis Del Rey, co-owner of the Skins Game, an Irvine-based golf apparel company. “Golf wasn’t just for good old boys. That showed us that golf apparel needed a change.”
New golf-wear lines such as the Skins Game and Ashworth, which plans to open its first Ashworth Studio store in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza in August, began targeting younger golfers by redefining golf attire.
“Today golf fashion is kind of hip and cool,” says Gerald Montiel, co-founder and chairman of Ashworth Inc. in Carlsbad. “Whereas 10 years ago golfers looked kind of geeky, today golf is an ‘in’ style to wear.”
Among golf-wear designers’ first assignments: getting golfers to loosen up their collars.
They began creating shirts with soft ribbed knit collars instead of the hard, pointed collars that golfers had worn for decades.
In most circles, a change in collar style would not be enough to tee off the old guard, but golfers are sticklers for tradition. Many longtime golfers initially resisted the soft collars. Eventually, though, comfort and style won out.
“That was a big deal. Guys like my dad who had worn the [hard-collar] shirts for 20 years couldn’t find them anymore,” Lichty says.
Shirt sleeves also underwent a revolutionary--for golfers--change. Golf-wear companies began replacing open sleeves with simple hems with banded polo-style sleeves. At first many golfers didn’t like the ribbed-knit banded sleeves because they clung to their arms.
“When they first started making banded sleeves, they were too tight,” Lichty says. “The manufacturers got so much resistance to them that they relaxed the bands and made them looser.”
Longtime golfers won that round: They now have their choice of sleeves.
Not content to just change a few details, golf-wear designers began making golf shirts out of more sophisticated fabrics. Instead of using polyester, which suffocated golfers on warm days, they chose cooler cottons and, occasionally, washed silk. They experimented with textures, Jacquard weaves and printed knits.
They abandoned the engineered stripes that gave golfers a bad fashion reputation and introduced subtle paisleys, understated stripes and solids. They replaced gaudy hues such as lime green with earth tones such as sage and hunter green. Coordinating shorts and chino-style pants helped turned golfers into fashion plates.
Still, with country clubs monitoring players’ attire and enforcing dress codes, there are limits to how far down the fairway designers can go in revamping golf-wear.
“The country club world sets the standards,” Lichty says.
Most private clubs and high-end public courses such as Tustin Ranch ban tank tops, T-shirts, short shorts and denim. Proper dress is as much a part of golf course etiquette as keeping quiet while the other player tees off.
Country club “customers expect their golf peers to have a certain amount of standards,” Lichty says. “It’s illogical for a guest who drives up in a Mercedes and pays $100 to golf to wear a tank top and shorts.”
Lower-priced public courses, which attract less affluent golfers, have far more relaxed dress codes.
“You have to have something on--that might be the extent of their dress code,” Lichty says.
Yet golf-wear companies who want their players to be able to play the country clubs have to adhere to higher course standards.
“There’s only so much we can do to a golf shirt,” Del Rey says. “We can change the stripes, but there’s still two sleeves, two buttons and a collar.”
The Particulars
Shirt: Swing room requires a fuller cut, larger armholes, longer sleeve reach and longer tails. Collars are made of soft, ribbed knit cotton for comfort in the sun.
Pants: The rules are easy here: cotton, twill chino-style pants work; lime-and-green plaids don’t.
Shoes: Classic two-tone saddle shoes and soft spikes that don’t eat up the greens are welcomed at every course.
Collars and Spikes Get Soft
What you’re seeing on the links are not your father’s (or mother’s) golf clothes. Here’s a rundown of golfwear styles, based on function, style and traditions:
* Collars: For players, collars are not a fashion option. Golfers can get kicked off the course if they show up with a bare neck. Some golfers, the more mature ones, prefer hard collars, but they’re in the minority. Soft collars made of ribbed knit cotton, some with woven trims, stripes and borders for added interest, have become the standard.
* Sleeves: They’re another course requirement. Country clubs usually forbid tank tops and other sleeveless styles. Sleeves have been altered in recent years. They’re longer, almost to the elbows, so they don’t pull up when the golfer swings. They can be open or banded at the edge, but the bands have loosened up so they don’t cling to the forearms.
* Button up: Two- or three-button closures are standard, but some progressive golfwear companies are making shirts with complete button fronts and even zipper closures.
* Fabrics: Cotton is king in golf. Because the game is played outdoors, golfers need clothes that breathe. Polyester shiny shirts of the past are out of bounds.
* Tails: Golf shirts are usually longer in the tail than a standard polo-style shirt so that, when golfers swing, their shirts don’t come out of their pants. In golf, neatness counts. Most private clubs demand that those tails be tucked in.
* Silhouette: The cut of the golf shirt is fuller than most polo styles to allow the golfer room to swing like a Tiger. Armholes are about 1-inch larger than typical knit shirts.
* Logo: Embroidered status symbols appear on the front of most golf shirts. They usually advertise a golf apparel line (Ashworth, Bobby Jones) or country club.
* Shorts: Wearing shorts too short is bad form and can get a golfer ejected from the links. Club dress codes typically demand that shorts be just above the knee. Save the short shorts for the volleyball courts.
* Shoes: Many courses now require golfers to wear shoes with soft spikes instead of metal ones to keep from tearing up the greens. Without the spikes, many golf shoes no longer look like goofy golf shoes; classic two-tone saddle shoes and even patent leather styles are popular.
