Survey your members about dress codes

There’s an informative article on dress codes in the June issue of Golf Monthly, which includes a poll of golfers that has some interesting results.

The vast majority – 92 per cent – think rules on clothing are still relevant today, but more than three quarters of golfers believe jeans should be allowed in the clubhouse bar.

I suspect that if the poll had been conducted just 10 years ago there would have been a similar percentage of people saying that dress codes are relevant, but an overwhelming majority would have opposed denim in the clubhouse.

I say this because I was at a golf meeting in 2007 when Stuart Christie, the then manager of Wentworth Golf Club, said he envisaged his club’s restaurants allowing jeans within the next five years, which was literally met with gasps from some of the industry professionals in attendance.

Julian Small, the current head at Wentworth, said of the topic: “The dress code of a golf club should continually evolve. We review it here on a continuing basis to reflect the needs of our members. I’ve a picture on the wall outside my office of a match played at Wentworth in 1926. The players are wearing jackets, ties, plus-fours and flat caps. If dress codes didn’t evolve, then that’s what we’d be wearing today.”

To prove the point, the article reveals that Scotscraig Golf Club in Fife, in 1817, had a dress code that was common with clubs at the time: red jackets with green velvet collars over a buff-coloured vest (featuring ‘small buttons’) had to be worn.

If you turned up to play wearing a red jacket with a green velvet collar over a buff-coloured vest that had buttons that were larger than the buttons on your jacket, you would be fined two bottles of port.

I’m one of the eight per cent who thinks dress codes are as irrelevant today as they were absurd 200 years ago, but clubs should obviously keep them if they’re cost-effective.

However, with the issue constantly evolving, that cost analysis probably needs to be regularly carried out.

How often do you survey members, visitors and potential customers on the issue of dress codes?