Putter & Tweed

Hole 14 · Since 1931

Golf skirts and skorts: a skirt on the outside, shorts underneath

1931 to now: from shaped culottes to the pleated golf skort

Golf skirts and skorts: a skort is shorts with a panel on top that reads as a skirt, or a skirt with shorts built in. You get a skirt's shape, the cover of shorts, and pockets in the shorts for a ball and tees.

Morgan Pressel following through in a yellow skort and navy polo at the 2009 LPGA Championship pro-am
Morgan Pressel following through in a yellow skort and navy polo at the 2009 LPGA Championship pro-am. Keith Allison / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. CC BY-SA. Source.

What it solved on the course

A skort lets you swing, bend over a putt and climb out of a bunker without worrying about what the skirt is doing. It also gets you past dress codes like the LPGA's, which since 2017 says skirts and skorts must cover the "bottom area" at all times.

History

The skort owes a lot to riding and tennis. Victorian women already had long split skirts so they could sit astride a horse. At Wimbledon in 1931 the Spanish player Lilí Álvarez wore culottes cut to look like a skirt, the first time anything like a skort was noted on a tennis court. The word came later: Montgomery Ward's 1959 Spring/Summer catalog claimed to have invented the skort, then a short pleated skirt with bloomers attached.

Hockey, netball and tennis players took to it before golfers did. On the course it arrived in the 1960s, when women's skirts were getting shorter and the skort brought knee-length pleats over shorts.

Today's golf skort has shrunk to roughly two to five inches above the knee. It is usually a polyester-spandex blend with four-way stretch and a high UPF rating, and the shorts underneath have pockets for balls, tees and a glove. In 2017 the LPGA decided some skirts, shorts and skorts were too revealing and rewrote its dress code around the "bottom area" rule.

A tennis skort is built to run, pivot and serve in. The golf version is cut to a hemline that works from a relaxed public course to a strict private club, which is the whole trick of it.

Who wore it best

  • Lilí Álvarez

    Played her 1931 Wimbledon match in culottes shaped like a skirt, the first skort-like outfit noted in tennis.[1]

How to wear it now

  1. Find your club's minimum length before you shop. Two to five inches above the knee clears most, but some private clubs want longer.
  2. Look for shorts with a flat waistband and a pocket deep enough to hold a ball without it bouncing out as you walk.
  3. If you want a skirt with no shorts inside, pick a heavier fabric or a longer cut. A light skirt and a windy links course do not mix.
  4. Tuck in a polo, or wear a quarter-zip over it on a cool morning. Pleats and a plain front panel both work.
  5. White, navy and black go with almost any top. Let a patterned skort be the only pattern you wear.

Where to buy

New

Vintage

Links open the shop's own site. Some may earn us a commission.

Sources

  1. Skort, Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  2. How Golf Skorts Have Evolved, Women's Golf. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  3. Culottes, Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  4. The History of the Golf Skirt: From Victorian Exclusion to Global, A New Golf USA. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  5. A Stylish Look at the History of Golf Fashion, 18 Birdies. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  6. Golf Fashion Throughout History, 1900s to Today, Galvin Green. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  7. The Evolution of Dress Codes: How Women's Golf Skorts Are Shaping Modern Golf Etiquette, Fairmonde. Retrieved 2026-09-30.

Updated .