What to Wear on a Golf Buddies Trip (The Only Packing List You'll Actually Use)

Every golf trip has the same four guys. The one who packed for a week. The one who packed for a night. The one who brought a blender. And the one who shows up to the first tee in the same hat he wore to the airport, the bar, and breakfast, and will wear again tomorrow.

This list is for all four of you. It's built around one rule: you will be photographed more on this trip than in the rest of the year combined, so pack like it.

The hat math

One hat per playing day, plus one for nights. That's it. Three rounds means four hats. Here's why it isn't overkill:

• Day one you sweat through the first hat on the back nine. It is not dry by morning.
• Day two is the day everyone takes pictures. Fresh hat, different color, you look like a different person in the group photo.
• Day three is the hungover round. You want the lightest, most breathable thing you own.
• Nights need a hat that doesn't have 18 holes of sunscreen in the sweatband.

Our suggested four: a rope snapback for the photo day (The Harpy Snap or The Low Harpy Snap, depending on your crown), a performance hat for the heat (The Peregrine or The Osprey), The Condor for the day you want to look like you've been doing this a while, and The Eagle if the trip lands anywhere near a holiday weekend. Not sure which crown you are? Four questions.

Shirts: polos, and then more polos

One per round plus one for travel. Performance fabric, nothing cotton, nothing white if the course has a lot of red dirt bunkers. Pick colors that don't fight your hats. If your hat has a seafoam rope, the seafoam polo is not a coincidence, it's a plan.

Shorts and pants

Shorts for every round unless the forecast says otherwise, one pair of pants for the cold morning nobody believed would happen, and one pair of real pants for dinner. Golf shorts at a steakhouse is a look, and it is not a good one.

The quarter-zip

One. Every trip has a frost delay or a 52-degree first tee time and the guy without a layer spends the front nine shaking. The quarter-zip comes off by the fourth hole and lives in the cart the rest of the day. That's its job.

Rain gear

A real rain jacket, not a windbreaker that "should be fine." Rain gloves too, because the second it starts raining your regular glove becomes a wet paper towel. Nobody in your group packed rain gloves. Be the guy who did and watch your Nassau odds improve.

Shoes

Two pairs of golf shoes. One gets soaked, the other is dry the next morning. Plus whatever you'll wear at night. Three pairs total, no exceptions, no "I'll just wear the golf shoes to dinner."

The small stuff that makes you the hero

• A dozen more balls than you think you need. Two dozen if the course has water.
• Sunscreen that isn't the hotel sample. Your hat covers the top of your head; it does not cover your neck.
• A portable charger. Cart GPS, group chat, and 400 photos drain a phone by the turn.
• Cash for the caddie, the cart girl, and the side bets. Venmo is not a personality.
• Ibuprofen. Day three.

The one thing not to pack

A single hat. We said it up top and we'll say it again: the guy in the same hat all weekend is in every photo looking exactly the same, and he's the first one to get sunburned when it finally falls apart on day three. Hats are the cheapest part of the trip and the most visible. Treat them that way.

Build your four here: every ParBird. Free shipping, and if you order this week they're in your bag before the trip.