It boggles my mind that people in this thread can’t see this. Golf’s dress code is a tradition that doesn’t deserve to be honored.
I can afford plenty of collared shirts , and I hate wearing shorts. I even do own golf pants and polos for the few times when I want to play somewhere that requires them. But, I still don’t like wearing “proper golf attire”, and I especially don’t like being told that I have to wear them to be welcome to play.
Obviously there are courses, and other golfers, that don’t care how I’m dressed. That is typically where I play and who I play with, but it doesn’t change the fact that those are the only places I’m welcome to play unless I conform to someone else’s idea that I should dress semi-formally (or business casual or whatever you want to call it) to play a sport.
Consider for a moment the extents that golf apparel manufacturers have gone to make a non-athletic style of clothing perform like athletic wear, instead of the community just accepting that athletic wear is appropriate dress for playing a sport.
Golf is not a sport. Anything you can do while smoking a cigar doesn't qualify in my book, lol. I walked 34 holes yesteday and I'm sure my heart rate never go over 90 bpm the entire day.
I don't care what people wear at public courses but I'm 100% ok with private courses having clothing and other rules or codes. My last club only allowed cell phone use in the parking lot and I loved it. People would occasionally take a call during a round but they would wander off in the rough or woods far away from any other golfers to do so.