I was over at my friend Jimmy Rizzi's house and the conversation  turned, as it sometimes does, to golf.  Jimmy and I used to play a lot  together at the Noyac Golf Club in Sag Harbor.  I was a member there  until I sold my house in Long Island and moved my weekend and summer  operations to Northwestern Connecticut, where I have yet to find a  home course.

I was wearing my excellent khaki cargo shorts from Supreme, and was  telling Jimmy that I love these shorts because I can keep everything  separate.  I can have an extra ball in one of these lower pockets, and  this little pocket in the front is just right for a scorecard, and  then I can keep my tees in my left pocket, and my ball marker and  green-repairing tool in my right pocket.  Then Jimmy dropped a bomb on  me.  "You can't wear cargo shorts at Noyac."

It never occurred to me that I might accidentally wear something  taboo to a private golf course, or any course for that matter.  I'm a  big supporter of appropriate dress on the links.  Denim is out of the  question.  Collared shirts are de rigueur.  (Unless you're Tiger Woods  and you can wear a fancy t-shirt with a giant swoosh on it at  Augusta!  The pros are allowed to play looking quite a bit like  something out of NASCAR, with logos on everything.)  Shorts should  reach the knee.  I know you can't wear shorts at all at the hardcore-conservative Baltusrol; any course that's been around since 1895 has  that right.  But Bermudas are acceptable just about everywhere in the  golfing world, and I consider my cargo shorts Bermudas with two  discreet extra pockets.  Sure, if I had six golf balls in each pocket  they might look grotesque, but I'm trying to look good out there.

I think this new rule is suspicious.  If anything is going to be  outlawed it should be those shorty socks that make a golfer look like  he's sockless.  I know there is some tanning issue involved here, but  socks are traditional.  Golfers should wear them.

It's quite likely that I might have showed up at my old club in these  shorts.  I wore them recently playing the Seaside course at the very  proper Sea Island Golf Club and I felt quite welcome.  Noyac was the  last place that I'd suspect of having such a rule.  I can see if they  were camouflage, but khaki?  Why, Jimmy was a member at Noyac when he  had sky-blue hair.  Maybe my old club is going conservative in  reaction to the progressive McMansionization of the Hamptons.

Anyway, after I left Jimmy's I stopped in at Supreme, and their regular  Bermudas with the reinforced seat were on sale for $69.  I bought a  pair in olive.  I think I'll carry them in my bag where I keep my rain-suit.  What's going to be outlawed next?  Pleats?  Whatever happens, I'm  sure you'll be allowed to play in a baseball cap that says "Titleist"  on it.  There's no justice.