Thomas bucks the trend of fashion failures
American is forced to play down interest in his attire after turning up in old-school Ralph Lauren ‘I didn’t come here to dress well, I came to play good golf ’
It might not seem the easiest get-up to perform in while playing golf, but Justin Thomas’s Polo Ralph Lauren outfit at the Open yesterday was a nod to the era of gentlemanly dressing in sports. The American’s shirt, tie, cardigan and chinos combination – worn with white shoes and cap – was an old-school interpretation of golfing uniform, which itself is perhaps the most maligned of sports in terms of fashion.
The design is signature Ralph Lauren; the designer has long mined the aesthetic of the East Coast, collegiate, polite sporting life, with this ensemble nodding to a certain Gatsby-esque 1920s nostalgia.
Golf has had a fractious relationship with style in recent decades; gone are the days when the Duke of Windsor would turn out on the course in tweed plus-fours, Arran knit and brogues.
Questionable diamondpatterned Argyle sweaters and saggy polo shirts tend to dominate, and Donald Trump showed how vastly wrong golfing attire can go when images of him in an ill-fitting golf outfit went viral this year.
Thomas’s look was undoubtedly formal – the original sketches from Ralph Lauren actually visualise the outfit with a buttoned-up shirt collar, as opposed to his undone one – but it was a smart, polished affair, denoting that he could swing a nine-iron while looking pinsharp and “together”.
He explained yesterday: “Obviously, I knew it was probably going to get a lot of publicity but I didn’t come here to dress well, I came here to try to play some good golf. This is a golf shirt, so it’s not like it’s uncomfortable. It’s not tight. It’s not something I know I even have on comfort-wise. It’s just something I wanted to do for this event.”
Amateur golfers might scoff at the idea of crisp shirting on the 18th hole (up until the 1920s, all tennis was performed in starched shirts), but you could easily swap in a neat polo shirt and wear with a lightweight cardigan. Not a garish diamond sweater in sight.
Another player who it is clear enjoys dressing up is Jason Day, who bucked the usual golf shoes in favour of high-top Nike Air Jordans, shoes synonymous worldwide with hip hop culture and basketball.