Will shorts be banned from LIV Golf? Are Phil Mickelson’s calves being put under wraps?
LIV Golf are very keen to point out the modern nature of the tour, with music forming a backdrop to the action as well as its more abridged 54-hole format.
Another difference/improvement is the use of rangefinders, something that might well follow on the main tours, but the Saudi-based circuit appears to be taking a strange step backwards when it comes to its dress code.
If ever there was a tour that would welcome the use of shorts it would be LIV Golf but, according to former 4 Aces GC player and now LIV commentator Pat Perez, it seems that only trousers will soon be allowed.
“The players are wearing pants all year. I got it confirmed the other day that the players are wearing pants and the first place I thought about was Singapore,” Perez said on the League’s Fairway to Heaven podcast.
His co-host Jerry Foltz added that he too had heard the rumour but nothing has been confirmed and some players were still wearing shorts at the first event of the year in Riyadh.
The DP World Tour occasionally allows the use of shorts but the PGA Tour has firmly stuck to the (old-fashioned) traditions of the game and insisted on no shorts. Unsurprisingly the Asian Tour has allowed shorts since early 2023.
LIV Golf is set to visit Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore for the next three events before several tournaments in the States in the middle of summer so the supposed new ruling will be well tested in the hot and humid conditions.
LIV released this post in 2022, a few months after LIV Golf got underway and it seemed unthinkable that they would reverse the ruling.
If the move does go through it will mean that the most famous calves, belonging to Phil Mickelson, will again by put under wraps.
One day, probably in the very distant future, the words ‘dress code’ will no longer feature in the game but, for now, it seems that trousers are once again the way forward for the tour that hails itself as the ‘future of golf’.
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