Just working through my response to a comment on a posting of mine (from earlier today), which took me to some new places. Innocently falling into the question of what a golf cap is, something of a morass in the world of categorization and labeling (that, at least, is a recurrent subject on this blog, with a Page here about my postings about it).
So: the posting of mine is “Collard shirts: the backstory”, on golf club dress codes, and the comment came from Robert Coren:
[quoting:] Golf courses usually only permit baseball caps (clean and not beaten up) or straw hats to be worn by players.
[RC:] This surprises me, as it does not seem to include what is generally called a “golf cap”.
It occurred to me that these sites think of golf caps as a separate but related species to baseball caps, rather than viewing them as a subtype of baseball caps (as I was inclined to do).
Let’s get down to caps. In fact, Wikipedia doesn’t list golf cap as a type of cap at all. Meanwhile, the Ashworth site (devoted single-mindedly to clothing for golfers), under Golf Hats, offers a variety of headgear called just caps, including the “Lightweight Twill Golfman Cap”. I have now looked at lots of baseball caps, from many different makers, and a great many of them are absolutely indistinguishable by eye from Ashworth’s golf cap. (Some are clearly different, with flat bills rather than curved ones, and some have brims that baseball caps lack; but most, including Ashworth’s golfman cap, look just like baseball caps.)
I’m tempted to say that if it has a baseball team logo on it, it’s a baseball cap, but if it has a golf club logo on or a polo shirt company logo on it, it’s a golf cap. If it has no logo, or some other emblem or slogan (a rainbow flag, say, or GAY PRIDE), then it can serve equally for wearing at a baseball game or while playing golf or anywhere else where caps are allowed (not for dinner at a La Côte Basque or diplomatic receptions or other dressy occasions).
So, Ashworth and its caps. A piece of Ashworth puffery from their website:
Revered by passionate players since 1987, Ashworth is the original, authentic golf apparel brand. It is this distinction and extraordinary heritage that sets us apart from the rest. … Created from a golfer’s point of view, with an eye for style, in premium materials, John Ashworth and Gerald Montiel founded Ashworth and changed how men dress to golf.
They have 7 lines of merchandise: golf polos, golf t-shirts, pullovers, golf pants, golf shorts, golf hats, and gloves.
The Lightweight Twill Golfman Cap comes in in 7 colors: black, white, crimson, dark navy, Carolina blue, [light] yellow, and bone. Here it is in brutal black:
(#1) With the Ashworth logo
And here for comparison is the Falari baseball cap (logoless) on sale through Amazon:
(#2) With a full display of the colors available
