Editor's Blog

Is Golf Elitist?

The subjects of dress codes and grooming policy continue to push your proletarian buttons. Have the comments of Ron Sirak and John Hawkins in Golf World revealed our elitist genes? Jeans?


Dear Editor,

This game is still far too elitist. The game is played by the masses in scrungy Levis, t-shirts, and yes, beards. TPC Scottsdale set up the stadium hole, No. 16, to encourage fan participation; those folks aren't restricted in what they can wear or whether they shave. Get over it and let the game find it's own level of decorum. We don't need the gray hairs to tell us what to do.

George delaCruz
Benicia California
Buchanan Golf Club (public)


Dear Editor,

"Cargo shorts may be worn while building a golf course--but not while playing one." John Wyatt, Payson, Ariz."

Living here on Oahu, I thought I'd go ahead and call the PUBLIC course where Obama played and ask them about their dress policy and how often they run that policy by John Wyatt for his approval.

Turns out that Pres. Obama followed the dress code and they have never heard of John Wyatt. Go figure.

I'm just glad Pres. Obama went ahead and wore the cargo shorts rather than take a page from the Republicans. That would be to have worn them in secret anyway and then issue a stong public statement denouncing such actions from others.

Todd V.
Honolulu, HI

Dear Editor,

You made it sound as if being a DEMOCRAT is some what bad. Sir, there are a lot of us that are DEMOCRATS, and we are as American as you and anyone else.

Tom Gonzales
Cheyenne WY


Sorry, Tom we meant to say that being a Democrat in cargo shorts and a beard is bad. Democrats who dress like Republican dentists are fine.

--Bob Carney

Comments

Archived Comments (3) Click to expand

Snide, picayune, arrogant and discriminatory. The fashion fascists proclaiming their superiority make me regret taking up this game. Luckily my friends aren't the prissy school-girl snobs a lot of these elitists are.

I don't wear jeans on the course but that's mainly a comfort concern. The truth is, though, if I wear ever in a jam, I'd prefer my stubble faced, denim wearing brothers over a bunch of runway rejects who can't get their shoes or hands dirty.

Real men don't obsess over shorts.
Period.

Posted by monkeynaut February 16, 2009 2:26 PM

Amen, Monkeynaut. I can't believe how often Golf Digest laments (honestly, or just veiled- I'm not sure) about how so many golfers are leaving the game. With the attitude most of the elitist golfers have, especially too many of the writers and bloggers for GD, it's no wonder golfers are leaving. Who wants to put up with that?

Luckily, there are places the stubbly, cargo-shorts wearing, not-up-to-the-minute-equipment playing riff-raff can go... the local muni.

Screw the elitist and their $100 and up greens fees. I'll play my $30 local muni any day of the week. At least there, they get to know me for me (not how I dress or shave) before they decide whether they want to pass judgement on me. I'll take that ANY day.

Posted by justin66 February 18, 2009 12:28 PM

Justin, you've hit the nail on the head. The industry, and a lot of us individually, love the IDEA of growing the game, but when it comes to adjusting our expectations about how those golfers should look and behave, we resist. We want them to be like us...or how we think we are. There are traditions that deserve preserving. But too often we just don't like change. Cargo shorts probably falls in that category.

Posted by bcarney1 February 24, 2009 4:39 PM

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