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Let’s pause for a moment to consider one of golf’s mysteries.
It may not rise to the level of deducing Hogan’s secret or determining exactly when and where the first golf shot (and subsequent recovery shot) were taken but it remains a question with no definitive answer.
What happened to kilties on golf shoes?
Who or what decided that kilties, those oversized shoe tongues cut with supposedly stylish slashes that adorned golf footwear for years, no longer belonged?
Like Sansabelt slacks and Sandy Andy wedges, shoes with kilties essentially went away. Thanks to the internet it’s possible to find golf shoes that look like those worn by Snead and Demaret, but they’re no longer in demand.
The obvious answer to why kilties disappeared like Anthony Kim is golfers wanted something else. Maybe they wanted something else because style-setters told them that’s what they wanted but it happened.
To this day, some of us still think there’s nothing better than the black-and-white saddles that Fred Couples wore in his prime, long before he landed a shoe contract with a company that offered different stylings. Maybe it was Freddie and Davis Love III who sent kilties to virtual extinction.
For all the function they provide, golf shoes are also fashion statements. Ian Poulter, Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas and Phil Mickelson are among the players whose shoes tend to be as distinctive as their games.
Tiger Woods ushered in sneaker-like golf shoes and while they’re undeniably comfortable, they sacrifice style points. Of course, given what Tiger has accomplished in his career, he could wear flip-flops and golfers would follow his lead.
Thankfully, golfers said no to golf sandals, which may have looked worse than coaches’ shorts.
Times change. Tastes change. Styles change.
Kilties had their day in the sun … and the sand … and the mud.
We’ve moved on but some of us have not forgotten.
Ron Green Jr.