What Men Should Wear to Play Golf at The Broadmoor
A collared golf shirt with sleeves is required and denim is prohibited by name, and those two lines settle most of what a man loses sleep over the night before a tee time. The Broadmoor publishes the men's rule in plain words: "Traditional golf shirts must have collars and sleeves. Golf slacks or Bermuda-length shorts are required." Shorts are welcome at Bermuda length, so slacks are a choice and not an obligation. The prohibition list is explicit: "Jeans, short shorts, cut-offs, halter or tank tops, T-shirts, and jogging suits are not permitted." On your feet, "Traditional golf shoes with soft spikes are required for all golfers; however, flat, rubber-soled shoes are also acceptable." The only published hat rule is an indoor one, asking that "All hats be removed when entering The Grille, The Grille Lounge, and the Member's Lounge," and no hat rule is published for the course itself. One more line matters more than any of them for what goes in your bag: "Prior to 2pm, players are required to take a cart on both courses."
Required, with sleeves. A polo, not a T-shirt and not a tank.
Named and prohibited. No dark wash exception exists.
Allowed at Bermuda length. Short shorts and cut-offs are not.
Soft spikes required, flat rubber soles also acceptable.
Dress code The policy spells out the collar, the shorts and the shoes
Most resort dress codes gesture at good taste and leave you to guess. This one names things. The men's attire line asks for a traditional golf shirt with a collar and sleeves, then gives you slacks or Bermuda-length shorts and stops. The prohibition list is where it gets useful, because it calls out jeans directly, which is rarer than readers expect. You do not have to litigate whether your darkest pair reads as trousers in the right light. They do not. Leave them in the room.
The footwear line is unusually specific for a resort, and worth reading twice: "Traditional golf shoes with soft spikes are required for all golfers; however, flat, rubber-soled shoes are also acceptable." That is a real requirement, not a preference, and it is the line most men overlook while obsessing over the shirt. Read the whole thing yourself on the resort's published golf rates and customs page before you pack.
Then separate convention from policy, because they are not the same thing and nobody is served by blurring them. The published hat rule governs rooms: "All hats be removed when entering The Grille, The Grille Lounge, and the Member's Lounge." No hat rule appears for the course. Wear the cap through eighteen holes, take it off at the door, and treat anything beyond that as manners rather than regulation.
The course The East Course plays long and thin at 6,250 feet
Donald Ross drew the original in 1918 and Robert Trent Jones Sr. did later work on it. Par 72, 7,355 yards from the Blue tees, bent grass greens. The address is 1 Lake Circle, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906, in El Paso County, at the base of Cheyenne Mountain in the Pikes Peak area roughly five miles southwest of downtown. The resort went up between 1916 and 1918, and the course was the highest elevation course in the nation when it opened. Two eighteen hole courses operate now, East and West. The Mountain Course closed in 2015 after a landslide. Season runs March through November, and the resort golf pages hold the current tee sheet.
The championship record is long: U.S. Women's Open in 1995 and 2011, U.S. Senior Open in 2008, 2018 and 2025, U.S. Amateur in 1959 and 1967. None of that changes your shirt. The elevation does change your packing, and so does the fact that the wind here is a non story. Average hourly wind speed in Colorado Springs holds within 0.2 mph of 8.1 mph across October, predominantly from the west. Steady, modest, no gusts to dress against. This is a temperature and altitude round under a high dry sun, not a wind round.
Conditions The property hands you six conditions worth packing for
6,250 feet. Thin, dry air and sun that lands harder than the thermometer suggests.
Colorado Springs daily lows fall from 44 F to 34 F in October while highs fall from 70 F to 59 F, a swing of roughly 25 to 30 degrees inside one round.
Colorado Springs average hourly wind stays within 0.2 mph of 8.1 mph through October, predominantly from the west.
Colorado Springs overcast or mostly cloudy skies rise from 24 percent to 33 percent across October, and the chance of a wet day falls from 11 percent to 8 percent.
"Prior to 2pm, players are required to take a cart on both courses." A morning tee time is a cart round.
March through November, on bent grass greens.
The cart The starter will put you in a cart before two o'clock
Read that policy line again, because it is the planning fact of this round: "Prior to 2pm, players are required to take a cart on both courses." Not encouraged. Required. If your tee time has a morning in front of it, you are riding, and the decision about what to wear stops being a decision about what you can carry.
That is a genuine break from how most of these guides have to be written. At Erin Hills, where you walk, and on courses that leave the choice to you, every layer you bring is a layer you will be carrying at some point in the afternoon. That constraint quietly shapes the answer. It does not exist here.
The argument The basket carries the layer a walker leaves at home
Here is the whole thing in one move. A cart has a basket. A basket is storage. Storage means you do not have to pick one garment that is tolerable at 34 degrees and survivable at 70. You take two, you wear both off the first tee, and you shed them on the way out as the day climbs. The compromise layer, the one that is slightly too warm for the back nine and slightly too thin for the first three holes, is a walker's problem. Stop solving it.
So pack for two temperatures instead of splitting the difference. A firm collared polo is the base and the only piece the dress code is checking. A quarter zip goes over it for the cold open and comes off at the turn into the basket. A vest stays on longer than the zip does, because it frees the arms while the core is still catching up, and because the basket meant you never had to choose between the two. By the time you are putting out on eighteen under a 59 to 70 degree Colorado Springs afternoon, you are in the polo you started in. Nothing was left in the car and nothing was carried.
If you want the thinking behind the fits before you buy, we laid out the differences in athletic, slim and classic fit, and the vocabulary in our glossary of apparel terms. Two other posts in this series cover tee times where the layering math runs differently, a round at The Greenbrier and a round at Bethpage Black.
A cart gives you a basket, and the basket is the reason you take two layers instead of arguing yourself into one.
The whole argumentLine by line The Broadmoor publishes these lines and this is how they read at the bag drop
| What the policy says | In the exact words published | What that means at the first tee |
|---|---|---|
| Collar and sleeves | "Traditional golf shirts must have collars and sleeves." | A real polo. Sleeveless is out, a T-shirt is out, and a soft rolled collar is the thing that gets noticed. |
| Slacks or Bermuda shorts | "Golf slacks or Bermuda-length shorts are required." | Shorts are fully allowed. Length is the test, not the category, so bring the pair that sits near the knee. |
| Denim | "Jeans, short shorts, cut-offs, halter or tank tops, T-shirts, and jogging suits are not permitted." | Jeans are named, which ends the debate. Pack golf trousers for the drive if you want them. |
| Footwear | "Traditional golf shoes with soft spikes are required for all golfers; however, flat, rubber-soled shoes are also acceptable." | Soft spikes or a flat rubber sole. Check your spikes the night before rather than at the bag drop. |
| Hats | "All hats be removed when entering The Grille, The Grille Lounge, and the Member's Lounge." | An indoor rule only. No hat policy is published for the course, so wear the cap and take it off at the door. |
| The cart before 2pm | "Prior to 2pm, players are required to take a cart on both courses." | A morning round is a riding round, which hands you a basket and settles how many layers you bring. |
The kit We dress the whole round in four pieces
Navy, blue, black and beige sit right against the Front Range, the pines and granite of Cheyenne Mountain under a high dry light. Two pieces live on the course, one lives on the course and past the turn, and one is honest about staying off it.
David Polo in Navy
$76
The collar is the thing the dress code is actually checking, and this one is firm. It holds its shape after four hours of sun, a zip pulled over it and a zip pulled back off, which is more than most collars manage. Built from 84 percent nylon and 16 percent spandex with four way stretch, sweat wicking, a classic athletic fit, a U cut hem and pre shrunk so it comes back from the wash the same shirt. Navy reads clean against the high dry Front Range light.
David Polo in Navy
Alec Quarter Zip in Blue
$98
A 34 to 44 degree Colorado Springs morning at 6,250 feet is colder than the number looks, and this is the piece that handles it. Pull it over the polo for the opening holes, work the zip as the sun gets up, then take it off at the turn and drop it in the basket. That last part is only possible because you are riding. On a walking course this layer is a commitment. Here it is a loan.
Alec Quarter Zip in BlueKevin Vest in Black
$78
This is the layer you keep on after the quarter zip comes off. The arms are free for a full swing while the core is still cold, which is exactly the state you are in on the tenth tee of a round that started in the thirties. The point is that you never had to pick between this and the zip. The basket took one and your shoulders kept the other, and black holds its line against anything the Front Range throws at it.
Kevin Vest in Black
Hayden Hoodie in Beige
$98
Wear this to the range and on the drive up Lake Circle, not on the course. Being straight with you: the published policy prohibits T-shirts and jogging suits and says nothing at all about hoodies, in either direction. So we are not going to tell you a hoodie is permitted on the course or in the clubhouse, because that is not published and we would be guessing. Ask in the golf shop when you check in. They will give you a real answer in five seconds, and until then the polo and the vest cover you.
Hayden Hoodie in Beige
If you are still deciding on the shirt, our run through the best men's polos compares the collars side by side.
Questions Men ask these six questions the night before
What is the dress code at The Broadmoor golf course?
Men need a collared golf shirt with sleeves, plus golf slacks or Bermuda-length shorts, and golf shoes with soft spikes or flat rubber-soled shoes. The published policy states that "Traditional golf shirts must have collars and sleeves. Golf slacks or Bermuda-length shorts are required," and that "Jeans, short shorts, cut-offs, halter or tank tops, T-shirts, and jogging suits are not permitted." The only hat rule published asks that hats be removed when entering The Grille, The Grille Lounge and the Member's Lounge, which is an indoor rule. For packing, that means one firm collared polo is the only piece being tested, so spend your attention on the layers that handle the temperature instead.
Can you wear jeans at The Broadmoor?
No. Jeans are named directly in the list of items that are not permitted, alongside short shorts, cut-offs, halter or tank tops, T-shirts and jogging suits. Denim being called out by name is rarer than most readers expect, and it removes any argument about whether a dark wash pair passes as trousers. Pack golf slacks for the drive and the clubhouse so denim never has to come out of the bag.
Does The Broadmoor allow shorts?
Yes, at Bermuda length. The policy says "Golf slacks or Bermuda-length shorts are required," which makes shorts a full option rather than a tolerated one, while short shorts and cut-offs are prohibited by name. Length is the test, not the category. If your morning tee time starts in the thirties, shorts still work as long as you bring a layer up top, because the afternoon climbs toward a Colorado Springs high of 59 F to 70 F in October.
What shoes are required at The Broadmoor?
Golf shoes with soft spikes, or flat rubber-soled shoes. The published wording is "Traditional golf shoes with soft spikes are required for all golfers; however, flat, rubber-soled shoes are also acceptable." This is one of the few resort codes that makes footwear an explicit requirement rather than an assumption. Check your spikes the night before you travel, because a worn set is the one thing on this list you cannot fix in the parking lot.
Do you have to take a cart at The Broadmoor?
Before 2pm, yes. The policy states that "Prior to 2pm, players are required to take a cart on both courses." That means a morning tee time is a riding round, and a riding round gives you a basket. Storage is why you should pack two layers rather than compromising on one, because a quarter zip you shed at the turn costs you nothing to carry.
Can you wear a hoodie at The Broadmoor?
The published policy does not address hoodies either way, so ask in the golf shop. It prohibits T-shirts and jogging suits by name and says nothing about hooded layers, which means anyone telling you a hoodie is definitely permitted on the course or in the clubhouse is guessing. Treat a hoodie as range and travel wear, and pack a quarter zip and a vest as the layers you know are fine over a collared polo.
A cart round deserves two layers, not one compromise
A firm collared polo, a quarter zip for the cold open and a vest for the back nine. Built for the round you booked, cut to swing in, and sized through XXXL in the polo.
