Golf as we know it today began from a game enjpyed on the east coast of Scotland in the Kingdom of Fife during the 15th century. Players would hit a stone around a natural course of dunes of sand, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or club.
The emergence of golf as an organized competitive sport in the UK was mirrored abroad in India and the U.S. The receipts from the gate were used as prize money for the first time in 1892 in Cambridge, England. The first international golf tournament was the Amateur Golf Championship of India and the East in 1893. In 1894, the United States Golf Association was founded to regulate the game in the U.S. and Mexico.
In the 1920s, the game of golf in the USA. became an avenue for fashion, golf attire became a requirement. Standard golf fashion included baggy plus-fours in lightweight material and fancy colors, matched with two-tone shoes and a sleeveless Argyle sweater, with matching blazer.
Modern straw golf hats were made fashionable by Sam Snead and later Greg Norman. Snead was ageless, the only player who won sanctioned tournaments in six consecutive decades, from the 1936 West Virginia Closed Pro to the 1982 Legends of Golf Tour, which he won with Gardner Dickinson as his partner. He was well known for his straw hat and natural swing.
Greg Norman grew up in North, very close to the equator, and spent a majority of his time in the bright sun, surfing, fishing and diving. In Australia, the popular hat was a common surfer’s wide-brimmed straw hat. It has a brim that circles your entire head, even the back of the neck. It is the perfect hat for keeping the glaring sun off from your face and keeping you cool. When Norman played golf, he kept his eyes focused on the ball while it was resting on the tee, in flight, and after landing; all without getting blinded by a flash of bright sunlight in his eyes. Originally his mother and father absolutely hated his straw hatso very much that his mother would dispose of it. She believed straw hats just weren’t appropriate for golf. In the beginning of his career, Greg Norman was sponsored by an Australian hat company, known for their large, Aussie cowboy style hats. While on the course, this hat was too hot for him, so the company created the same shape of hat that he loved in childhood, but in straw.
In the hot sun, you must wear a hat to shield you from the bad things a tropical sun can do to your skin. But, just as importantly, your golf hat makes a bold statement about what kind of golfer you are, or at least hope to become. Nowadays, the two most ordinary types of golf hats seen on the golf course are the straw hats, such as Greg “The Shark” Norman wears, or the more ordinary baseball caps. Very few players wear the floppy brimmed hat that was first made popular by Christopher Robin.
The psychological benefits derived from choosing a straw hat are two-fold. First, it can give you the feeling of unlimited daring, especially if you bend the brim into a good imitation of the one Crocodile Dundee wears. Further enhancement can be achieved by sticking such things as a feather into the hat band. On the other hand, a stylish straw hat can creat an illusion of a James Bond like appearance of casual elegance. Also, I might add, most men find ladies wearing smart straw hats to be a big distraction, that may be worth several strokes to them during the course of the game. Women also sport these hats as part of womens golf apparel.