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Decoding Golf's Dress Code

By Jay Karen posted 10-09-2015 00:00

  
For my very first blog post as CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association, rather than go into platitudes about the game and industry, I want to wade into an issue that has been on my mind for a long time, which has both macro and micro implications for the golf industry: dress codes at golf courses.

One crisp December Sunday afternoon not long ago, I decided to take my then 6 and 8-year-old kids to the driving range at a local public golf course here in the Charleston area. They have a great deal: ten bucks for each kid, and they can beat balls and practice on the putting green all day long. I would consider this course a "high end daily fee" facility. I arrived around 3:00 pm and there was hardly a soul in site, and the range was going to close in about an hour. A great time to be on the range with two little ones, to ensure we would not bother anyone. The propensity to bother someone in a public place with a 6 and 8 year old is strong. We walked into the pro shop, where there was a young man standing behind the counter with not much going on. I expressed my appreciation for the generous deal they had for kids to practice, as I handed him my twenty bucks. As we were about to leave the pro shop, he whispered to me, "Next time, please make sure he has on more appropriate attire." I was stunned for a moment.

My mind started racing after the pro shop attendant politely chided me for apparently breaking the course's dress code. You see, my 8-year-old daughter had on black leggings, a skirt, and a striped non-collared long-sleeve shirt. And my 6-year-old son had on a blue, collar-less sweat shirt and khaki pants. As a dad and golfer, I was just happy to get them into something warm for the weather that wasn't going to embarrass me or them. Granted, neither had a shirt with a three-inch piece of material sewn into the area around the neck, but I'm sure I thought, "Hey...they're little kids and this looks fine."


After my admonition, and as I dragged the kids to the range, I felt a sense of both shame (I am typically a rule-follower) and embarrassment. But the embarrassment wasn't for me - it was for golf in general. Because of this one experience at this one course, I felt embarrassed for an entire industry I used to work for. I thought, "Really?? Golf still doesn't get it. The future of this game is in question, and they're still enforcing rules that keep people from playing the game." And I then felt a little anger, as a papa bear. Here I am trying to spend time with my kids, outdoors, teach them a life-long game that has incredible value, and they were classified as "inappropriate." How dare they? Am I now going to have to buy new clothes for my kids, simply so they will be allowed to play golf? I'm also thinking that golf attire in cold weather becomes "ambiguously appropriate," with all the different styles of top-layer, non-collared shirts and covers. Underneath there may or may not be a shirt with a collar. C'mon, dude...really? A 6-year-old in a sweatshirt doesn't belong here???

I will admit, I didn't examine the course's "Golf Course Attire" page on their web site (didn't even know they had such a page), but I know in general the standard dress code in golf has forever been: collared shirt and slacks or shorts. I've known this since I was about 8 years old, when I first started playing golf in Snellville, Georgia. I never questioned it. In fact, in a way, the dress code in golf has always had an "aspirational quality" about it. Essentially, for a middle-class kid, you got dressed up to play golf. Maybe for high-class kids this was dressing down, but for kids who usually wear t-shirts, putting on a collar must mean this is going to be fancy or important. For a middle-class kid, golf was seen as something of the world of doctors, bankers, lawyers and businessmen. Something to which I should naturally aspire, thus I should dress the part. And I liked it. Some reading this may feel this kind of tradition is what has been good and decent about society: getting dressed up as a show of respect for the people or experience you will encounter. And I generally agree with that. It's why I wear a coat and tie at certain industry functions. It's why I won't wear jeans to my favorite restaurant in Charleston. But is this right for golf, which can also be a beer drinking, spend some time with land and water, laugh it up with my friends, physically exhausting event? Does a collar matter?

A few months ago, I had the occasion to play in a full-field, corporate golf outing at very high end course outside of Detroit with a couple hundred of my fellow association executives. I'd say that at least 50% of the players were not serious golfers, but rather along for the ride to enjoy their twice-per-year game with industry peers and friends. There we were, all loaded up in our carts and listening to the head pro welcome us and go over the rules of the scramble. It was going well. Beautiful setting. Hospitable staff. And then he finishes his speech with this, "Oh yeah. One more thing, we have a local rule to make sure everyone tucks in their shirts." You could hear a bit of laughter here and there (I assume at the absurdity of the rule), and I noticed a few people sheepishly tucking in their shirts. That week, I was proud to tell my association peers that I was back in the golf industry. At that moment in time, though, I felt a tinge of embarrassment. It felt like a parent was reminding his child how to dress, but to a crowd of people who really don't care about the conventions of golf. Would it re-enforce someone's thought, "See..this is why I don't play golf more often"? Is the tuck-in policy worthy of ridicule? Does this club understand what's happening in the world around them?

It used to be that every mom wanted her child to aspire be a doctor, banker, or lawyer (who all probably played golf). And that world had its own dress code. Until now. A few years ago, the media was all-a-buzz about Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. He was visiting Wall Street to drum up support for Facebook's initial public offering, and Zuckerberg dared to wear anything but a pin-striped suit and tie as he descended on lower Manhattan. In fact, he wore... a hoodie! This was a perfect illustration of the changing nature of "aspiration" in American society. I will contend that since the Internet boom of the mid-90s, the image of success has no longer been just a fund manager in an Armani suit walking down Wall Street. It's also the software executive in Silicon Valley wearing jeans and a tee shirt. And if you look at corporate America across the board and what people are wearing to work, the scale of casual-vs-formal is tipping sharply toward the casual. Society is changing. Is golf? Better yet, should golf?

Remember, for me and probably millions of others (if they realize it or not), the aspirational qualities of golf (such as dress code) had a magnetic effect. It was one of the reasons I was drawn to the game. If we do away with collared shirts as the standard for dress, will we lose a part of our magnetism? Will loosening up the dress code at the local course change golf's overall image, which I believe is driven mostly by what we see on television and was historically driven by the country club experience? The famous multi-course owner, Donald Trump, recently opined that golf should be for the elite, rather than an egalitarian activity. I will contend that golf is and will always be both elitist and egalitartian...as long as there are always courses that cost $400 a round to play and those that cost $15 a round to play. But should the same or similar dress code apply across the spectrum at a time when demand for the game is showing as flat or down? Do we resist change, because we think we will be overrun by an unwashed mass? Or should we embrace it, because old fashioned dress codes are becoming a thing of the past, and by sticking to them we re-enforce reasons why people eschew the game? According to the NGF's recent study of Millennials, the "stuffy" nature of golf is one reason why so many people dislike the game. And yet, as I believe, it's the very reason why some are attracted to it, whether they will admit it or not.

So, all of these mores and values I have as a dad, golfer, a golf industry guy, a kid who grew up without a lot of fancy things or experiences, are converging at the same time when the pro shop attendant whispered in my ear. I'm not proposing the industry universally change dress codes in golf, because I'm a believer in not dictating to independent business operators as to what they should or must do. But I do want to provoke discussion. My question is: does a three-inch strip of fabric around the neck really matter that much? I guess my answer is: obviously, it does.

What do you think? I invite you to comment.


P.S. At the time, the first golf course in my story didn't have a dress code policy for kids; only for men and women. After that day on the range, I sent them an email explaining my feelings on the matter. Today, the language on their web site under dress code is "Gentlemen and Boys" and "Ladies and Girls." I guess my expression resulted in doubling down on the importance of a collar.
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