The PGA Tour is loosening its fashion restrictions on their players, allowing them to wear shorts during practice and pro-am rounds.
Effective at this week's WGC-Mexico Championship and Puerto Rico Open, the PGA Tour has given the green light for players to show off their calves before competition rounds begin (typically on Thursday).
The PGA Tour posted a notice to players in the Puerto Rico locker room at the Coco Beach Golf and Country Club.
Posted in locker room in Puerto Rico. Rounds of golf getting longer but pants getting shorter. @PGATOUR approves wearing shorts for practice rounds and pro-ams, effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/5InHw8JJyA
— Dave Shedloski (@DaveShedloski) February 18, 2019
The PGA Tour notice to players says the shorts must be "knee length, tailored and neat in appearance." That's not a specific hem line, but the Tour will surely give players leeway on that.
Players are also allowed to wear compression leggings with their shorts as part of their practice round and pro-am attire, though they have to be a solid color. No patterns, Beef Johnston!
Of course, players will still be required to wear long pants during competition rounds. This change goes into effect on all PGA Tour umbrella tours, including the Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Champions, PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour China.
As more PGA Tour events run by the Tour's championship management arm close off the golf course to spectators during some practice and pro-am rounds, it makes more sense to allow players to wear something more casual than perhaps what they would expect a player to wear during a tournament.
The change comes more than three years after the European Tour introduced similar measures during the Desert Swing. The PGA of America has allowed shorts during practice rounds of the PGA Championship and associated championships since the 2017 PGA Championship.
With the daily high this week at the Puerto Rico Open putting temperatures in the 80s, this was the perfect place to kick off a new era in the PGA Tour dress regulations.
