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What was acceptable or commonplace when you started golfing vs now?

- Polo material
- Slacks styles
- Hoodies being accepted
- Golf shoes looking more like sneakers
- Distance measuring devices. Used to just have the blue white red markers and if you were lucky you got yardages on the sprinkler heads
- The post round drink. As a kid playing with my grandpa and my dad, you ALWAYS went in for a soda and hot dog after the round. And the place was packed with guys. Now, it’s return the cart and time to go. I miss that after round relaxing
- rolling greens. Some courses still do it and their greens are so much faster and have true rolls
 
Biggest changes:
Metal vs woods, with graphite shafts
“Players cavity” irons
Graphite shafted irons
Comfortable shoes. With no kilties.
Performance fabrics.
THE biggest change: the ball. I started when balata was still the “players” ball.
 
Clothing. Cotton was fine because it’s what existed. Now ya gotta be dumb to wear it in the heat
 
Stated a few times, but ~90% walkers vs ~10% now (if that).
 
DCSerafin said:
Stated a few times, but ~90% walkers vs ~10% now (if that).
Click to expand...

Walking vs riding is a great one

When I started in 2003 or so, very few carts. Now when I play public courses I would say the majority is carting for sure
 
DCSerafin said:
Stated a few times, but ~90% walkers vs ~10% now (if that).
Click to expand...
Yup I learned the game with my bag on my back. Now at my age I’m a rider.
 
Biggest change for me has been getting old and can't hit the ball as far as I used to --
 
Metal spikes, wooden woods. I miss both and think golf would be a better game with wooden woods.
 
Vinyl look leather golf bags , block colours and typically Black , Blue , Brown , White or Red was liked on as being egotistical.. lol

Wet weather gear that soaked up rather than repelled ..

And Golf Rule books everywhere…
 
Acceptable to me?
I wore cargo shorts a lot when I first started. Hopefully I won’t be going back to that anytime soon 🤣
 
Coulter said:
Acceptable to me?
I wore cargo shorts a lot when I first started. Hopefully I won’t be going back to that anytime soon 🤣
Click to expand...
Trends always come back around 🤣
 
Daluteh said:
So you're putting while they walk up to the green? Then they mark and step off while the next group hits?
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Yep. By the time they got to the green we had putted out and were on the next tee.
 
mikefrench said:
@BigMac got there first but balata balls.

Back then the choice was a rock hard Topflite or Pinnacle or a crappy Dunlop 65, or a balata ball which cut the first time you hit it. So much more quality choice, much more durable.

I do miss the ability to just rock up to the course, head to the first tee and either go right off tor wait a few minutes in a queue. No such thing as booking tee times.
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I played the Maxfli DDH wound with a surlyn cover rather than balata, balata simply spun too much. Heck, all the would balls spun a lot, but the balata spin was stupid. Ripping back 7 irons 20'.....
 
1860VS said:
I played the Maxfli DDH wound with a surlyn cover rather than balata, balata simply spun too much. Heck, all the would balls spun a lot, but the balata spin was stupid. Ripping back 7 irons 20'.....
Click to expand...
Loved the Maxfli DDH :)

Even back then I loved the tech (for what there was) DDH dimple patterns and more of them by a mile than everyone else.....
 
Commonplace, back in the day?

Being required to wear a jacket to dinner in the clubhouse.
Metal spikes
Separate mens and womens grill rooms (Still see it occasionally, but not often)
Sunday bags (hardly ever see them now)
 
Elitist snobbery with men only clubs, bars etc. I'll take the bro golf over the entitled "Bushwood" attitude all day every day.
 
Alan4014 said:
Back when I first started, pro shops actually had a pro in them. Like a real class A pga professional. And assistant pros working the shop and learning the ropes.
Pro shops also had golf clubs in them. And fitting carts.
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One of the many things I greatly appreciate at our club.
Great head PGA pro (multiple northwest PGA awards) a new assistant pro, and a guy trying to get his under par round to become a PGA pro. Fully stocked pro shop with actual clubs and full fitting setups for multiple brands.
 
Not a fan of music on the course. Even if I like your playlist. If you must have music while you play, then get some Bluetooth headphones. And I don’t recall seeing people with their dogs out on the course in the past. When did that become a thing?
 
PhillyV said:
- Polo material
- Slacks styles
- Hoodies being accepted
- Golf shoes looking more like sneakers
- Distance measuring devices. Used to just have the blue white red markers and if you were lucky you got yardages on the sprinkler heads
- The post round drink. As a kid playing with my grandpa and my dad, you ALWAYS went in for a soda and hot dog after the round. And the place was packed with guys. Now, it’s return the cart and time to go. I miss that after round relaxing
- rolling greens. Some courses still do it and their greens are so much faster and have true rolls
Click to expand...
There are courses that dont roll their greens?
 
When I took up the game everybody walked the course. Slow play really wasn't a thing because the Club Committee vetted players before they were allowed to play in competition. Those new to golf had to earn a handicap (max 24) to qualify. Slow play wasn't a thing before TV professional golf coverage.
 
knowing who Dorf was and modeling games after Dorf on Golf used to be commonplace. Weird that went away





for those who don;t know...yes, meant to be funny. no, probably wasn't.
 
Bonded drivers. Long irons instead of hybrids, less use of a loudly spoken F word and more equipment in the pro shop.
 
PhillyV said:
- Polo material
- Slacks styles
- Hoodies being accepted
- Golf shoes looking more like sneakers
- Distance measuring devices. Used to just have the blue white red markers and if you were lucky you got yardages on the sprinkler heads
- The post round drink. As a kid playing with my grandpa and my dad, you ALWAYS went in for a soda and hot dog after the round. And the place was packed with guys. Now, it’s return the cart and time to go. I miss that after round relaxing
- rolling greens. Some courses still do it and their greens are so much faster and have true rolls
Click to expand...

Many of the above, but I chose to highlight that one. I distinctly remember when the family was visiting relatives in western PA., my golfing Uncles taking me out to play. I was about 14 or 15, but after the round we stopped at a bar! It turned out to be a tavern called the Saxon Inn, which was owned by another Uncle! They drank beer, I drank Coke, we ate burgers and fries, and enjoyed a really nice end to a day of golf.

Nowadays, my friends and I try to keep that alive. A couple of drinks, or even a full meal after the round is not out of the question! In fact, it is welcomed. Clothing. Cotton was fine because it’s what existed. Now ya gotta be dumb to wear it in the heat

DCSerafin said:
Stated a few times, but ~90% walkers vs ~10% now (if that).
Click to expand...

True! But locally I have seen kind of a new trend of back to walking. The new three wheeled push carts make so much more sense than our old two wheel pull carts it isn't even funny! It could be course specific. Out local 35 hole Donald Ross designed facility bought a crap load of Sun Mountain 3 wheelers a couple of years ago, and people are using them like crazy!

1860VS said:
I played the Maxfli DDH wound with a surlyn cover rather than balata, balata simply spun too much. Heck, all the would balls spun a lot, but the balata spin was stupid. Ripping back 7 irons 20'.....
Click to expand...

Loved the Maxfli DDH, especially the one sub-branded the AR 432. I have no idea what that meant, but it was a wonderful golf ball. Then, when my golf game was at its height, I discovered the Titleist Tour Balata Black! An incredible ball, that I would not play below about 85 degrees F! It was supposed to be a 100 compression ball, and I suspect that it might have been.

1860VS said:
There are courses that dont roll their greens?
Click to expand...

I was surprised seeing the greens being rolled at a course where I never expected it.
 
I was going to say greens fees were a lot cheaper back in the 70’s. The average fee for a weekend was $12 but in 2026 dollars that would be about $100 today. I played every Saturday and Sunday back then when I wasn’t making much at all. I can’t afford $800 a month to play weekends now.
 
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