Golf Fashion Style for the ladies

| BY KEVIN PILLEY

Ahead of the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews (July 14-17), the R&A has brought out a new line of clothing to tempt lady golfers.

This summer women golfers could be wearing Knickerbocker Glories, Loud Macleods, and Well Plaid and Plaid Awesome Tartans. Royal & Awesome is based in Scottish golf country. In Gullane on the east coast, not far from Edinburgh. It produces a range of “unexpected” golfing styles. Scott Woodworth’s Loudmouth is another golfwear outlet offering something a little different and many things -like frankfurter prints, Margarita plaid, Blasterpiece, Disco Balls shorts, Happy Hour mini shorts, and Shagadelic stretch-tech skorts – which are a lot different.

This season, after Australian Cam Smith’s victory at the Players Tournament, the men don’t know whether they should be an Original Penguin or a Filtered Flamingo, or be a vision in caviar and black iris, or stick to being a shark, or go all out Waste Management Open and everyday John Daly, perhaps even full-on Peter Millar “Shipfaced”. They don’t know whether their crushed cranberry and chinchilla days are over, whether they are too old for Florida tangerine and horizontal stripes, and fluorescence.

At a certain age where lies the line between conservative and radical. When does flamboyant shade into pathetic? These concerns do not apply to the ladies. Their only dilemma is whether to dress as Flora, Adalyn, Carine, Celestine, Poppy or Joy, reflect on whether the weather’s right for a sassy skort, and decide whether it’s a Callaway Hummingbird or Kyjus half-zip day, or a Foray day, and when it’s time to step into some Byrdie Golf Social Wear or Tory Burch, or just get the toucan Waggle on.

Scottish brand Glenmuir, founded in 1891, is still the traditional but modern default destination for women’s golfwear and golf glam; from mandarin-collared polo shirts to anti-curl collars, diamante buttoning and lurex accents to capris, gilets, waterproofs, and trousers, Glenmuir is on the same par Ping, Adidas, and Tail, but there are high-end golf tailors too. Kjus was founded by a Norwegian Olympic and World Cup champion. New York’s Fairway and Greene has been making high-end ladies’ golf apparel for over 25 years. Linda Hipp founded the LIJA label in Vancouver, Canada which has evolved from pushing boundaries in golf apparel to pushing boundaries in tennis, training, running, and yoga apparel.

New York’s Foray offers everything from neoprene hoodies to V-necks, waffle knits to the latest in digital zigzag. You can even dress on course as a Neon Dentist! GG Blue’s first design was sketched out on a cocktail napkin looking out over the Pacific in Mexico. The company is named after the founder’s daughter, Georgia Grace. Lucy Dickman’s Swing Out Sister is one of the UK’s top women’s golf brands offering all golf apparel from visors to capris. No golfer- male or female- is fashion ‘uninterested”. Nowadays, it’s all performance fabric and street style, logos, tapered trousers, detailed snap-up collars, and ditsy tropical patterns, whereas a man has to decide whether he is going to be Greg Norman or Bryson de Chambeau, the ladies’ style choice for the course and clubhouse is between the classical and conservative and the disruptive, revolting, and new. This means these days, either a trippy Torrey Pines Loudmouth teamed with Loudmouth Frankfurters, a radical Royal & Awesome, or an elegant and very conservative classic firm vintage cut navy pique Lacoste or Nancy Lopez polo, or a more modern colorblock, of course, you can turn heads at the Bag Drop with your all-the-way from Arizona comedy Labradoodle or Gopher Daphnes Headcover.

Striking the right impression on the first tee is more important than striking the first shot. You only have one chance to make an impression. You have a hundred goes at making an impression – quite literally- on the golf course golf. At the end of the day, the best shots of the day should be of you.