Summer golf is the season the clothes are designed for, which makes it the easiest to dress for and the easiest to overthink. Most of what goes wrong is a fabric choice rather than a styling one: a jersey polo that clings by the fourth hole, or a white trouser that turns out to be see through in direct sun.
The outfits below are the ones I actually reach for between June and August. Light colours, woven or knitted fabrics with air in them, and hems that stay out of wet morning grass. Nothing here needs a jacket. If the temperature climbs past comfortable, the hot weather list goes further, and the spring edit covers the shoulder season on either side.
One buying note that costs nothing: hold a white trouser up to a window before you buy it. Our guide to the best golf apparel covers the pieces worth spending on.
A white polo with a navy skort. The summer default, and the reason it never goes away is that it works at any club, in any light, with any shoe you own.
A coral polo with white shorts. Coral is the summer colour that flatters almost everyone, and white below keeps the whole outfit reading as light rather than loud.
A striped polo above a pleated skort. Pleats move with the swing where a straight cut fights it, and stripes are the pattern that never dates in golf wear.
A mint polo with beige shorts. Mint has been the colour of the last few summers in golf and it earns it, because it behaves like a neutral beside warm beige.
A yellow polo with navy shorts. Yellow is the most visible colour on a course, useful in a busy summer field, and navy grounds it so it never tips fluorescent.
A floral skort under a plain white polo. Print below, quiet above. Choose a print with real space in it, because dense florals turn to mud from a distance.
A sage polo with white trousers. Sage sits beautifully against a course in high summer, and white trousers are cooler than most people expect if the fabric is right.
A sleeveless polo with a white skort. The lightest thing in the category, best on a course with shade, and worth pairing with sun sleeves if there is none.
A turquoise polo with white shorts. Turquoise holds its colour in strong summer light where pastels wash out, and it reads sharply against green from a distance.
Beige trousers with a white polo. Trousers in summer make sense on a course with thorny rough or insects, and beige hides everything the ground can do to them.
A colour blocked polo with a plain navy skort. Two clear colours above, nothing below, and it is the sharpest summer look here without any pattern at all.
A peach polo with a white skort. Peach is warmer than pink and softer than coral, and it sits in a gap most golf brands only fill for a few weeks a year.
A navy polo with khaki shorts. The least fussy outfit here and probably the most worn, because khaki survives a summer of bunkers without ever looking dirty.
A black skort with a bright sleeveless top. Dark below is fine in summer because legs move constantly; it is a dark top that traps heat against the torso.
White trousers with a striped long sleeve sun shirt. Full coverage in high summer, which sounds like a contradiction and is simply a matter of buying thin woven fabric.
A matching pale blue polo and skort. Sets remove the decision entirely on an early tee time, and tonal dressing photographs better than any two colour combination.