What Men Should Wear to Play Golf at Arcadia Bluffs
"Gentlemen must wear shirts with collars and sleeves, short or long." That one sentence, published on the Arcadia Bluffs policies page, is the entire rule for a man's shirt, and it sits next to a footwear rule twice its length: "Soft-spiked golf shoes or soft-soled golf shoes are mandatory at Arcadia Bluffs. Steel spiked golf shoes are not permitted." Translated: a collar with sleeves on top, soft spikes underneath, and you have satisfied the published dress code at Arcadia Bluffs completely. The club publishes no denim rule, no shorts rule and no hat rule, so the two questions you are typing tonight have no official answer anywhere on the site. The play that removes the question entirely is a collared golf polo with sleeves, soft-spiked or soft-soled golf shoes, and golf trousers or proper golf shorts instead of denim, gym shorts or anything cotton and casual. Dress that way and nobody at the starter has a reason to look twice.
Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club is at 14710 Northwood Highway in Arcadia, Michigan, in Manistee County, on the Lake Michigan shore. It is a public resort club, not private, which is exactly why men arrive nervous. There is no member to vouch for you and no pro shop phone call you want to make at nine at night. So you read the policies page, and the policies page is shorter than you expected. PILLAR has no affiliation with Arcadia Bluffs and no relationship with the club of any kind; every rule quoted here is the club's own, published on its Arcadia Bluffs policies and dress policy page.
The Arcadia Bluffs dress code is short enough to quote in full, and what follows is the honest version of it: the published rules, in their own words. The silence where you expected a ruling, named as silence rather than filled in with a guess. And then the thing that will actually affect your score and your comfort, which is not your collar at all.
Read the whole dress code and two of its four sentences are about your shoes.
The dress policy is four sentences long, and footwear takes up half of it. The club writes that "Soft-spiked golf shoes or soft-soled golf shoes are mandatory at Arcadia Bluffs" and, separately, that "Steel spiked golf shoes are not permitted." That is two sentences spent on what is under your feet, and it is the only part of the policy written in the language of mandatory and not permitted. Men get one sentence: "Gentlemen must wear shirts with collars and sleeves, short or long." Women get the remainder: "Ladies' shirts must have sleeves if it does not have a collar. Tank tops and halter tops are not permitted."
Read that set carefully and you learn something useful about where the club's attention goes. Steel spikes damage greens, so the club wrote a rule with teeth. A collar is a question of appearance, so the club wrote one line and trusted you with it. Nothing in the policy describes a fabric, a fit, a length or a color. Nothing describes your legs. The rule governs your feet, your collar and your sleeves, and then it stops.
Practically, that means your shoe check is the one thing to do before you leave the house. Soft spikes or soft soles, both named and both fine. Steel is a hard no and it is the only hard no in the document. If your golf shoes are more than a few seasons old, turn one over tonight.
Two of the four sentences in this dress code are spent on your shoes, and not one of them reaches your legs.
On reading the Arcadia Bluffs dress policy
Ask about shorts or denim and the policy page has no answer for you.
The club does not publish a ruling on either one. Search the policies page for the word shorts and you will not find it. Search for denim or jeans and you will not find those either. There is no stated hat rule, no stated trouser length, no stated prohibition on jeans. The dress policy addresses shoes, collars and sleeves, and then moves on to coolers, pace of play and golf car rentals.
Resist the urge to read that silence as permission, and resist the urge to read it as a ban. It is neither. What unpublished means in practice at a public resort club is that the decision belongs to whoever is standing at the first tee when you get there, on that day, in whatever mood the morning has put them in. You will probably be fine. You might also be the one group that gets asked. The downside is not a fine or a refusal, it is thirty seconds of explaining yourself with three strangers on the tee behind you, and it is entirely avoidable.
So remove the question. Golf trousers or proper golf shorts, cut for golf, in a performance fabric, in a color that reads as golf. No denim, because denim is the one item that makes the staff look at you twice even where nobody wrote a rule about it. No cargo shorts, no gym shorts, no athletic shorts with a drawstring hanging out. If the forecast says 47 degrees at your tee time, which an October morning on this shore very reasonably might, trousers answer the question and the temperature in the same move.
Wear a collar with some structure and the wind stops rearranging it.
The published rule asks for a collar and sleeves, and a polo is the answer. The part nobody tells you is that on open ground above a large body of water, a soft unstructured collar folds flat against your neck inside three holes and stays there. You spend the rest of the round pawing at it. A collar that holds its own shape is not vanity on a course like this, it is the difference between looking composed in the group photo at eighteen and looking like you got off a boat.
The David Polo in Navy is the garment the Arcadia Bluffs rule is actually about. Collar, sleeves, done. It is 84 percent nylon and 16 percent spandex with four way stretch, which matters on a course where you will be playing shots from sloping lies all day, and it is sweat wicking and pre shrunk, so the fit you buy is the fit you keep. If you want the reasoning behind that fabric choice rather than just the spec sheet, we laid out the case for nylon over polyester in a golf polo separately. Navy is the pick here for the same reason it is the pick on most links ground: it reads sharp against pale fescue and holds its color in flat lake light.
The second decision in this section is the morning layer, and it is a zip rather than a sweater on purpose. A pullover you have to take off over your head is a layer you then have to carry, and if you are walking there is nowhere to put it. A quarter zip you can open at the throat at the turn, open fully on the back nine, and never remove.
This is the piece the published rule is about. A collar with sleeves, and a firm collar that will not fold flat on an exposed bluff when the wind comes across from the water.
84 percent nylon, 16 percent spandex. Four way stretch, sweat wicking, classic athletic fit, firm collar, U cut hem, pre shrunk.
The morning layer for 47 degrees and wind off open water. A zip you can open at the turn instead of taking off a layer you have nowhere to put.
Look at the October averages and you stop packing for the temperature.
October here averages a high of 54.3F and a low of 47.3F, and that seven degree spread is the whole story. Seven degrees is nothing. You could play a round in Phoenix and watch the thermometer move three times that far. What makes this course cold is not the air temperature, it is 13.5 mph of average wind hitting you on ground that is 180 feet above the lake with nothing in front of it. Wind is the variable. Temperature is a rounding error.
That changes what you pack. A thick mid layer chosen for 47 degrees will cook you by the fourth hole, because 47 degrees in still air is pleasant walking weather. A thin layer that blocks wind will carry you through all eighteen. The right question is not how cold is it, it is how much moving air is going to be on my chest and for how long.
October high and low
54.3F / 47.3F
A seven degree spread across the whole day. Pack for air movement, not for the number.
Average wind speed
13.5 mph
The average, on open ground, with the lake on one side and no shelter on the other.
October precipitation
0.91 in
Spread across 10.6 days. Frequent and light rather than heavy, so a layer that sheds a passing shower earns its place.
Average day length
10 h 58 min
The average October day. There is less room for a leisurely round than there was in July.
Height above the water
180 ft
The bluff stands 180 feet above lake level, and the property falls 225 feet from its highest point down to the bluff.
Championship length
7,300 yd
Par 72 on the Bluffs Course, with tees from 5,024 yards at the red up to 7,300 at the champion.
Climate figures from Weather Atlas for Arcadia, Michigan. Course figures from the club's own Bluffs Course page and the Arcadia Bluffs entry on Wikipedia.
Kill the wind across your chest and your swing never notices the layer.
A vest is the correct answer to wind on a bluff, and it is correct for most of the round rather than part of it. Wind takes heat off your torso faster than it takes heat off your arms, and your arms are the part of you that has to swing a club. A vest solves the first problem and leaves the second alone. You are warm through the chest and your shoulders move exactly as they did on the range.
Black is the right color for it. The club describes "wind-swept native grasses, sod-walled bunkers, wide fairways, spacious greens", and Wikipedia records "windswept natural fescues throughout" on a property built in 1997 on 240 acres that was "a mix of apple and cherry orchards and densely wooded sections". Against pale fescue, sand faced sod walls and a grey Lake Michigan horizon, navy, black and beige are the three colors that look deliberate rather than accidental, and that is the entire color argument.
The last piece is not a golf course piece at all. The drive up to Arcadia is a long one for most people, the range before your round is cold, and the published rule about collars and sleeves applies on the course, not in the car park. A hoodie is what you wear for the four hours before your tee time and the four hours after it. Beige sits with the fescue, which means it photographs well in the parking lot and you will not look like you changed outfits for dinner.
The piece for when wind beats temperature, which on a bluff is most of the round. It kills the wind across the chest and leaves the arms and shoulders free to swing.
For the range and the drive, not the golf course. The published rule is about collars and sleeves on the course, so wear this before and after the round. Beige sits with the fescue.
Choose the walk, the caddie or the cart and you have chosen how many layers you can shed.
Arcadia Bluffs gives you all three, and the choice changes your packing more than the weather does. The club says "Players are always welcome to walk and carry or push their clubs", GPS-equipped golf carts are included in the price of the round, and there is a seasonal caddie program. Most courses hand you one option and you plan around it. Here you pick.
Carry your own bag and every layer you remove has to go somewhere, which means on you or in a bag already full of clubs. Take the cart and you have a basket, so you can bring two separate layers and swap between them. Take a caddie and the bag is handled, which is a different kind of freedom. We have written about the extremes of this on both ends: the walking-only round at Erin Hills and the mandatory cart at The Broadmoor each force a different wardrobe, and Arcadia Bluffs is unusual in letting you decide which problem you would rather have.
One administrative note worth knowing before you get to the counter: the club states that "A driver's license is required to rent and operate a Golf Car." Two more that catch people out, both published on the same page: "No music or coolers permitted on the golf course", and "Guests are prohibited from bringing their own beverages, alcoholic or not, onto the property." Pace of play is enforced rather than suggested, and a group that collects three slow play violations is required to "stop play and move to a position on the course determined by the Ranger." Dress code is the easy part of this policies page. The cooler in your trunk is the harder one.
Dress the whole round and the first tee stops being the only thing you planned for.
Your morning on an exposed bluff is not your afternoon on it, and most men only dress for one of them. The Bluffs Course opened in 1999, with the clubhouse opening on July 4 and the course opening to limited play that Labor Day, and it was designed by Warren Henderson, with Wikipedia also crediting Rick Smith. The shape of it, wide fairways and spacious greens and sod-walled bunkers that get rebuilt every three to five years, means your round is spent on open ground rather than in trees. There is no stand of pines on the ninth to cut the wind while you eat a sandwich.
So build the round in order. Polo first, because the rule asks for it and because it is what you will be wearing at eighteen regardless. Vest over it from the first tee, because the first two hours are the coldest part of the day on this shore. Quarter zip on top of both if your tee time is early and the forecast is honest about the wind. Then take pieces off in sequence rather than all at once, and keep the collar where it is. If you want the small detail that separates a composed look from a careless one once the zip is open, we have a view on how far to open a golf polo and it is shorter than you think.
Book the South Course and the same policy page still governs you.
There is a second course here, and the dress policy does not change. The South Course was built in 2018 by Dana Fry and Jason Straka, with design inspiration drawn from Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor. What does not differ is the rule set. The policies page governs the club, so the collar and sleeves requirement and the soft spike requirement apply to your round whichever course your tee time is on, and the silence on shorts and denim is the same silence. The published policies also cover non-smoking, golf reservations, use of the golf course, alcoholic beverage service and lodging, so read the page once rather than only reading the dress paragraph.
Read these six answers and you can stop searching tonight.
What is the dress code at Arcadia Bluffs?
The club's published dress policy states that "Gentlemen must wear shirts with collars and sleeves, short or long" and that "Soft-spiked golf shoes or soft-soled golf shoes are mandatory at Arcadia Bluffs. Steel spiked golf shoes are not permitted." For women, the policy states that "Ladies' shirts must have sleeves if it does not have a collar. Tank tops and halter tops are not permitted." That is the full published dress policy. A collared golf polo with sleeves and soft-spiked or soft-soled golf shoes meets it completely.
Does Arcadia Bluffs allow shorts?
The club does not publish a ruling on shorts. The dress policy on the Arcadia Bluffs policies page addresses shoes, collars and sleeves only, and the word shorts does not appear in it. Because there is no published rule either way, the safe play is proper golf shorts cut for golf in a performance fabric, or golf trousers, and nothing that reads as gym wear or casual wear.
Can you wear jeans at Arcadia Bluffs?
The club does not publish a ruling on denim. There is no stated jeans prohibition in the published dress policy, and there is no stated permission either. Since nothing is written down, the decision sits with staff on the day, and denim is the single item most likely to invite that conversation. Wear golf trousers or proper golf shorts and the question never comes up.
Are metal spikes allowed at Arcadia Bluffs?
No. This is the one unambiguous prohibition in the policy. The club writes that "Steel spiked golf shoes are not permitted" and that "Soft-spiked golf shoes or soft-soled golf shoes are mandatory at Arcadia Bluffs." Check the bottom of your golf shoes before you leave home rather than in the car park.
Are hats allowed at Arcadia Bluffs?
The club does not publish a hat rule. Nothing in the dress policy addresses headwear in any direction, so there is no published restriction on style or on wearing a cap backward. A standard golf cap is the uncontroversial choice, and on a course with 13.5 mph of average October wind according to Weather Atlas, a cap that stays on your head is worth more than a statement.
Can you walk Arcadia Bluffs or do you have to take a cart?
You can walk. The club states that "Players are always welcome to walk and carry or push their clubs." GPS-equipped golf carts are included in the round, and there is a seasonal caddie program, so all three options are open to you. The club also states that "A driver's license is required to rent and operate a Golf Car." Your choice affects what you wear, because a carried bag gives you nowhere to put a layer you take off and a cart gives you a basket.
Arcadia, Michigan
The Bluff Decides What You Pack, Not the Forecast
A collar with sleeves clears the published rule in one garment. The wind off Lake Michigan is the part you actually have to dress for, and it wants a layer you can open rather than one you have to carry.
Collars that pass the rule Layers for the bluff