What Men Should Wear to Play Golf at Coeur d'Alene
The Coeur d'Alene Resort permits shorts and refuses denim, and it asks for a collar in the one word that does not oblige you, preferred. Sleeveless shirts, tank tops, athletic gym shorts, cut off shorts and swim wear are all named in the restrictions, so the kit that clears this course without a second thought is a collared performance polo, a tailored short or a golf trouser, a soft spike shoe and a layer you can get on and off while sitting in a boat.
That settles the policy, and the policy was never the hard part. What actually decides what you wear here is the part of the day you spend not playing golf. You reach this course by boat. You warm up on a lakefront practice tee. Then, with four holes left, you cross open water a second time to putt the fourteenth green. The published code is soft enough that it reads better as a list of what to leave in the hotel room than as a list of what to wear, and the thing the list does not mention, a layer, is the only item on the whole packing problem that is actually load bearing. PILLAR has no relationship with the resort and no arrangement of any kind with it. We read what they publish, and what they publish is unusually clear about its own limits.
Shorts are allowed. Denim is not. A collar is preferred rather than required, and sleeveless shirts, tank tops, athletic gym shorts, cut off shorts and swim wear are each refused by name on the resort's own policies page.
A collared performance polo, a tailored flat front short or a golf trouser, a golf shoe and one outer layer will clear this property and leave you nothing to think about on the first tee. The policies page says nothing at all about hats and nothing at all about footwear. We are going to name that as a silence rather than fill it with a rule nobody published.
Their Own Page Lets You Wear Shorts and Stops You at Gym Shorts
Shorts are fine. Gym shorts are not, and the line the property is drawing is about construction rather than leg length.
The resort's published golf policies open with four words of guidance and then one sentence of refusal. The guidance is "Casual golf attire. Collared shirts preferred." The refusal is "Restrictions include denim wear, sleeveless shirts, tank tops, athletic gym shorts, cut-off shorts and swim wear." Read those two sentences next to each other and the shape of the document becomes obvious. The first sentence is a suggestion. The second sentence is a boundary. A man packing the night before should spend his attention on the second one.
Two of the five refused items are shorts. Athletic gym shorts are out and cut off shorts are out. A tailored short is not named anywhere, which is as close to permission as a policy page ever gets. So the property is not objecting to a bare knee. It is objecting to an elastic waistband, a mesh panel and a raw hem. A flat front golf short with a finished hem and belt loops is a different garment from the thing on their list, and it reads that way from forty feet.
Now put the second page beside the first. The golf and pro shop page covers the same ground with a harder verb: "Denim apparel, sleeveless shirts and tank tops are not permitted on the Golf Course." Not permitted. The policies page said preferred about the collar and this page says not permitted about the denim, and the same property wrote both. That is the finding of this whole guide. The resort is firmer about what it refuses than about what it asks for. Everything on the refusal list is settled. The collar is the one item left to your judgment, and we will come to that next.
One more detail of the wording, because it matters more than it looks. The policies page says restrictions "include" those items. Include is not the same as are limited to. An open list means the property has reserved the right to look at something nobody wrote down and call it wrong, and the safest reading of an open list is to stay well clear of its spirit rather than argue its letter. Nothing on this page is written to be argued with. We read a public course the same way in our guide to what to wear for a round at Montauk Downs, and the two documents are a study in how differently two properties can say almost the same thing.
Here is the refusal list with the substitution next to each item, because a list of prohibitions is only useful once somebody tells you what goes in the bag instead.
| Named in the code | Allowed | Bring instead | Why it is on their list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denim wear | No | A golf trouser in a performance woven | The only item both of their pages refuse separately |
| Sleeveless shirts and tank tops | No | A collared short sleeve polo | No collar, and a bare shoulder on a resort course |
| Athletic gym shorts | No | A tailored flat front golf short | Elastic waist, mesh, no belt loops |
| Cut off shorts | No | The same tailored short, hemmed | A raw hem reads unfinished at any length |
| Swim wear | No | Anything you have not swum in | A lakefront property has to say it, so this one does |
Four of those five rows are the same instruction written four ways. Buy the finished version of the garment. The fifth row is the one that tells you where you are.
A golf dress code that bothers to name swim wear is telling you what kind of property it is.
One Word in That Code Leaves the Collar to You
Wear a collar. The word on their page is preferred, nobody is going to stop you at the dock without one, and that is precisely the reason to wear one.
Preferred is the most interesting word on the resort's policies page. It is the word a property uses when it would rather you did something and has decided not to make it a condition of play. The same page, one sentence later, is perfectly capable of refusing an item outright, and the pro shop page uses not permitted without blinking. So the softness of preferred is a choice rather than an accident. Somebody decided the collar was a matter of taste and wrote it that way.
Which hands the decision to you, and a decision handed to you is a decision you can get wrong in both directions. Turn up in a crew neck and you have technically complied with a published policy and visibly ignored a stated preference, in front of a group of strangers, at a property that sells a pro shop "Selected annually by Golf World Magazine as one of the Top 25 Resort Golf Shops in America." That is the whole cost of the collar question. It is not a rules problem. It is a standing problem.
And you are not alone out there, which is the part most guides miss. The policies page states that "A forecaddie will accompany each group through the entire golf experience" and that "Forecaddies are included with the greens fees," with "The average base gratuity is $30 per player." So the round has a witness from the first tee to the last putt, for a published "4-hour, 30-minute 18-hole round time expectation." Four and a half hours in company is a long time to be the man who read preferred as optional.
A collar only settles the question if it is still a collar at the end of the day. The failure mode on a resort course is not a man without a collar, it is a man whose collar gave up somewhere around the seventh hole and spent the rest of the round folded over on itself. That happens to soft collars in heat and it happens faster when the shirt has been through a boat ride, a practice tee and an afternoon. The firm collar on the David Polo is a published spec, and on this course it is the entire reason to buy this shirt rather than a shirt that photographs the same on a hanger.
David Polo
The collar is the whole argument of this section and it is the published spec on this shirt. Firm, not a collar that quietly folds over by the turn. Eighty four percent nylon with sixteen percent spandex, four way stretch, sweat wicking, classic athletic fit, U cut hem, pre shrunk. Full size run, Small through XXXL.
Navy is the colorway for this property specifically. The course was planted to read like a park and the lake sits in half the views, so navy against water and evergreen looks like a decision, while a loud ground looks like a man who packed in a hurry.
If navy is not already in your bag and you are deciding what to own first rather than what to wear Saturday, we have argued that question at length in our piece on which polo color to buy first. For this course the answer is short. Navy, and then whatever you like.
A Seven Minute Crossing Puts You on Open Water Before the First Tee
Bring a layer you can get on and off while seated, because the first thing that happens to you at this golf course is a boat ride.
The resort's own words: "Climb aboard the Eagle or Double Eagle, our 16-passenger water taxis." They "leave the Resort on the hour and the half-hour" for what the property calls a "breathtaking 7-minute trip over to the Golf course." That is the published arrangement and it changes the clothing question completely. Every other course you have played began in a parking lot. This one begins on a lake, and the seven minutes you spend getting there are seven minutes before you have swung a club, generated any heat of your own, or had any chance to warm up.
This is the point where most course guides reach for the wind, and this one is not going to. The published climate record for Coeur d'Alene, which Weather Spark reports from the airport area rather than from the course itself, has the average hourly wind speed sitting within 0.3 miles per hour of 5.1 miles per hour all year. That is a low number and it stays low in every month. There is no honest wind argument to make here, and inventing one would be the easiest paragraph in this post to write and the least useful to you.
The honest version is simpler and it has nothing to do with weather. A boat under way makes its own moving air. It does that on a still day, because the air is still and the boat is not. Sit on the open deck of a sixteen passenger water taxi crossing open lake and the air moving past you is a function of the boat rather than the forecast. Seven minutes of that at seven in the morning is a different proposition from seven minutes of standing on a dock, and it is the single most reliable reason to own a layer on this property. You will also do it twice, and if you are staying more than a day you will do it four times or six.
Add the elevation. Wikipedia lists the course at 2,150 feet, which is not mountain golf and is also not sea level, and 2,150 feet contributes to a morning that lets go of its heat and an afternoon that takes a while to find it. None of these three things is dramatic on its own. Stacked, they are the whole case for not walking out of the hotel in a polo and nothing else.
Wikipedia lists the course elevation at 2,150 feet and credits the layout to Scott Miller, who per Wikipedia "planned the course to feel like a park." The lake is in roughly half of what you see all round.
The published October average for the Coeur d'Alene airport area runs a 58 F high against a 38 F low. May runs 67 F against 44 F. The morning is not the round.
A 16 passenger water taxi, open lake, both directions. Average hourly wind here is low, near 5.1 miles per hour all year, but a boat under way makes its own moving air.
What you do once you land matters too. The pro shop page publishes "Unlimited pre-round lakefront practice tee privileges," which means the warm up here is not a hitting bay in a building. It is a tee beside the water, and you are standing still on it, hitting balls slowly, for however long you decide to stay. Standing still beside a lake is where a man finds out whether he brought enough, and it happens before the round rather than during it.
The ride itself is covered. Greens fees include a "shared deluxe golf car," and with a forecaddie on the bag through the entire round you are not carrying anything, which means whatever you take off has somewhere to go. That is a small practical fact with a real consequence. A layer you can shed at the second hole and not think about again is a layer worth bringing.
October Takes Twenty Degrees Off the Morning
If your tee time is in October or early May, bring a real layer rather than a token one. The published October average for the Coeur d'Alene airport area, as Weather Spark reports it, is a high of 58 F against a low of 38 F. That is twenty degrees of spread inside a single day, and a seven in the morning crossing sits at the bottom of it.
Be honest about the season first, because the season is shorter than people expect. The resort's golf and pro shop page carries a closing line for the year reading Open Until October 20th, 7:00 AM to Last Golfer. The same page states that the lake shuttle to the course runs May to September. So this is a May to October property, the shuttle window and the closing date do not quite line up, and if your tee time is in October the question of how you are actually getting across the water is worth a phone call to them rather than an assumption from us. We are reading two published lines on one page, and two published lines are all we have.
Inside that window the published monthly averages for the airport area go like this. May, a 67 F high against a 44 F low. June, 74 F against 50 F. September, 73 F against 47 F. October, 58 F against 38 F. Weather Spark also marks a hot season of 2.7 months, June 21 to September 12, with an average daily high above 76 F, and names July the hottest month at an average high of 84 F. The cold season it describes, 3.5 months from November 13 to February 26 with average daily highs below 44 F, falls entirely outside the golf calendar, which is itself the reason the calendar ends on October 20th.
Look at what those numbers actually do to a day of golf. A May morning starts in the forties and finishes in the high sixties. An October morning starts in the high thirties and finishes in the high fifties. Either way the first five holes and the last five holes are being played in two different climates by the same man in the same shirt, and the only variable he controls is what is over the shirt. This is why the layer is the purchase and the polo is the given. A collar settles the policy. A layer settles the day.
The two ends of the window are the cold mornings and the middle of the window is the opposite problem. A July round at an average high of 84 F, over a published four and a half hours, on a course where half the holes have water in the view and no shade in it, is a sweat management question rather than a warmth question. That is a different brief, and we have written the shirt side of it in our guide to choosing a polo that does not show sweat. In July the layer stays in the cart after the first hole and the shirt does all of the work for the next four hours.
One number from this section is worth carrying in your head and it is not a temperature. It is the gap. Twenty degrees in October, twenty three in May. Dress for the bottom of the gap and plan to shed, rather than dressing for the middle and gambling on the first hour.
The Fourteenth Green Sends You Over the Water a Second Time
The floating green is the fourteenth hole, you get to it by boat, and the layer you took off on the front nine goes back on for that ride if the day is cool. That is the structural oddity of this course and it is the reason a layer here is not optional baggage.
The facts, from Wikipedia. The course opened for play in 1991. The "2,300-ton floating green was installed in September 1990," it is the fourteenth hole, and a vessel named Putter shuttles players to and from it. The card reads par 71 and 6,803 yards from the gold tees, at the 2,150 feet already mentioned. Wikipedia also credits the design to the "Phoenix-based designer Scott Miller," who it says "planned the course to feel like a park," and that single phrase explains more about how to dress here than any paragraph about fabric could. A park is a place with a considered ground and a quiet palette. You dress to belong in the frame, not to be the loudest object in it.
Work out the sequence of your own day from that. You cross water to arrive, stand still on a lakefront tee, play thirteen holes, cross water again to putt the fourteenth, then play four more and cross water a third time to get back to the hotel. Three boat rides and a stationary warm up, inside a published four and a half hour round. Every one of those moments is a moment you are not generating heat, and they are distributed across the day rather than clustered at the start, which is why the right layer is one you can take on and off repeatedly without a fight.
Three answers to that, and which one you want is a function of the month and of how much of your swing you are willing to cover.
Alec Quarter Zip
For the first crossing and the first five holes in May or October. A quarter zip is the layer you can open at the throat without taking it off, which is what you want when you are sitting down for seven minutes on open water. Be aware before you order that only Small, Medium and Large are sellable right now. Extra Large and XXL are out.
Kevin Vest
September publishes a 73 F average high and June a 74 F. Seventy three degrees standing still is not seventy three degrees on a boat under way, and that gap is exactly vest sized. It covers the core across three crossings and keeps a sleeve out from between you and the swing, so it can stay on through a tee shot instead of coming off for one.
Hayden Hoodie
The resort publishes unlimited pre round lakefront practice tee privileges, which means you are standing still beside the water before you play rather than inside a building. This is the piece for that half hour and for the crossing back at the end of the day. Note that XXL is out, so the run stops at Extra Large.
Pick one. Not three. The mistake on a trip like this is packing a layer for every forecast and then carrying all of them in a cart for four and a half hours. One piece, chosen for the month you are playing, is the correct answer, and the rest of what we build for layering can wait for a different course.
The Same Code Follows the Passenger Riding Beside You
If somebody is riding along without playing, the dress code still applies to them. The policies page says it in one flat sentence: "Non-golfers must adhere to the dress code." No denim, no tank top, no swim wear, and the same preference about a collar.
That catches people out more often than anything else on the page, because a passenger packs like a passenger. The fix is small. Whoever is coming along wears what you are wearing, minus the shoes.
There is a logistics line next to it that matters just as much. The resort publishes that "Non-golfing shared cart space is not guaranteed and must be requested at least 48 hours in advance." Forty eight hours, requested, not guaranteed. The same two day window applies to the tee time itself, which the property asks you to release at least 48 hours ahead to avoid charges. So the passenger is a phone call you make two days early, not a decision you make at breakfast.
What Men Ask the Night Before
Casual golf attire with collared shirts preferred, plus a short list of refusals. The resort's published policies page restricts denim wear, sleeveless shirts, tank tops, athletic gym shorts, cut off shorts and swim wear, and its golf and pro shop page repeats that denim apparel, sleeveless shirts and tank tops are not permitted on the course. Shorts are allowed, denim is not, and the collar is the one item left to your judgment. The David Polo in navy settles it without a second thought, because the firm collar is a published spec and navy reads deliberate against water and evergreen.
No. Denim is the one item the resort refuses on both of its golf pages, and the pro shop page uses the words not permitted on the Golf Course rather than anything softer. It is also the only restriction that is stated twice in two different places, which tells you how settled it is. Bring a golf trouser in a performance woven instead, and if the day is warm, a tailored short does the same job inside the same rules.
Yes, tailored golf shorts are allowed. The published restrictions name athletic gym shorts and cut off shorts specifically, and a tailored short appears nowhere on that list, so the objection is to elastic waistbands, mesh and raw hems rather than to a bare knee. Wear a flat front short with a finished hem and belt loops and pair it with a collared performance polo, which is the half of the outfit the code actually has an opinion about.
Not required, preferred, and you should wear one anyway. The policies page says collared shirts preferred, which is a stated preference rather than a condition of play, while the same property writes not permitted about denim and sleeveless shirts without hesitating. A forecaddie accompanies every group through the entire round over a published four and a half hour round time expectation, so there is a witness to the choice for the whole day. The David Polo in navy is the straightforward answer, with a firm collar that is still a collar on the eighteenth green.
You need a layer, and for a seven in the morning tee time in May or October you need a real one. The published October average for the Coeur d'Alene airport area is a 58 F high against a 38 F low, and you reach the course on a sixteen passenger water taxi over open lake, which makes its own moving air even on a still day at a course sitting at 2,150 feet. The Alec Quarter Zip in blue is the piece for that crossing because you can open it at the throat without taking it off while seated, and in June or September the Kevin Vest in black is enough.
Yes. The policies page states that non-golfers must adhere to the dress code, so the same refusals on denim, sleeveless shirts, tank tops and swim wear apply to a passenger who never swings a club. There is a logistics rule beside it as well, because non-golfing shared cart space is not guaranteed and must be requested at least 48 hours in advance. Dress whoever is riding along the way you are dressing, a collared polo and one layer, and make the cart request two days out.
The resort's golf and pro shop page publishes a closing line for the season reading Open Until October 20th, 7:00 AM to Last Golfer, and states that the lake shuttle to the course runs May to September. That makes it a May to October property, with the two ends of the window carrying the cold mornings and the middle carrying a July average high of 84 F. Because the shuttle window and the closing date do not line up, ask the property directly how you are crossing if you are playing in October, and pack the Alec Quarter Zip in blue or the Hayden Hoodie in beige either way.
PILLAR Mens Golf
A Collar and One Layer Is Enough Here
This code refuses more than it asks for, which makes the buying decision small. One collared polo that is still holding its shape four and a half hours in, and one layer you can get on and off sitting down in a boat. Start at the collar and work outward, and leave the rest in the room.
