Please Can We Stop Talking About Dress Codes?

On one side of the fence you have the supposed fuddy-duddies who think the wearing of a hoodie is a crime actually punishable by death, on the other you have the more forward-thinking brigade who would like to aspects parts of the game into the 21st century.
 
The latter claim that the older boys have no sense of style - ‘who are they to tell us what to wear in their egg-stained V-necks?’ - in turn the non-hoodie brigade talk of maintaining traditions. They’re never going to get along. We know all that; it’s part of life - we don’t all vote the same, we support different football teams, we have different friends, we have different tastes etc etc.
 
It’s so boring it’s laughable. If you don’t play the game then you’ll very quickly be put off by this type of chatter inside the game. It doesn’t take much to make golf look out of date and the fact that we’re all still bickering about dress codes escalates very quickly.
 
Wentworth was a brute last week yet Tyrrell Hatton went round it in 19-under and he’s now 10th in the world, one place ahead of Brooks Koepka. He’s established himself as one of the best closers in the game, we’re all finding him more funny than irritating and yet the big talking point at the end of it was what he was wearing.
 
The hoodie has been part of the Bunker Mentality range for six years now. Many of us will have hoodies of our own and some of us will start wearing it out on the course as that’s what we do - we like to copy the pros on the TV. If you want to look like Hatton or Tiger or Rory then good for you. If you’re influenced by what’s happening on the high street then good for you. If you want to wear your old faithful trousers from 15 years ago and favourite cardigan then good for you.

When you go down the pub or for a meal out when would you worry about what anyone else was wearing? So why does it matter when we’re all out playing a hobby, and one that isn’t generally that cheap, and so just want to enjoy it. Our own golf will be frustrating enough without someone telling us that we’re not dressed how someone would like us to be.
 
A tiny part of the Hatton fall-out was that Wearside GC then put out a statement which was as poor grammatically as it was in its tone: ‘Can I draw your attention to the Clubs dress code and re emphasise that “hoodies” are not acceptable for golf attire, no more so in fact than designer ripped jeans. ??’
 
Most of us had never heard much of Wearside before, now we’ve got this ludicrous opinion of the place based on a golfer wearing a hoodie.
 
The week ended in suitable style when an Aussie pro Ewan Porter, who now commentates on the game, sharing on Twitter that he didn’t play at at premier club in Sydney as he would have had to buy a pair of the club’s white socks to take the place of his black ones. He was subsequently banned from the club.