With close to six million female golfers on the continent, it should be something of a surprise to learn that on-course fashion trends have tended to proceed somewhat tentatively, with a somewhat rigid clothing style dominating through the decades. But with more and more designers beginning to take a second look, all that may be about to change.

Female golf fashions traditionally have not wandered far from the styles passing through generations of their male counterparts on the gold course. Along with the men, crisp golf shirts and spikes were de rigeur, with the principal difference in the style of pantwear: in short, women’s golf attire featured shorts and, eventually, golf skirts.

Fashions were usually developed first for professional golfers, whose influence would then pass to weekend players and country club dabblers. The watershed change in women’s professional golf fashion occurred when second-generation stars — that is, female pros appearing in the late 1960s and early 1970s — suddenly took to the course sporting visors. The trendy and colorful visor accessory, more helpful for players and slightly more stylish than sunglasses, was the rage in the era following the domination of such legendary golfing figures as Mickey Wright and Kathy Whitworth.

The emergence of such sex symbols as Laura Baugh and Jan Stephenson on the pro golf tour in the 70s and 80s coincided with a new era of clothing sponsorship and marketing, leading to more controversial and daring designs – or to put it more simply, golf skirts got a lot shorter. Professional decorum continued to be strictly observed in other areas – in one strange case, British pro Laura Davies was censured for wearing a pair of golfing trousers deemed “too close to denim” – but otherwise, dress code began to loosen as overall tour revenues went up. More recently, the heavily-sponsored golfing prodigy/oddity Michelle Wie began to appear on the course with an all-black ensemble of sleeveless shirt plus skirt of death-defying short length. However, her sponsor promised to lengthen skirts the following season, backpedaling on what appeared to be a fashionable race to the bottom.

But the point had been made, over and over, and designer clothing labels responded in kind. Female golf fashions are no longer a top-down trendsetting process from pro to Flo; instead designers have turned the tables and are communicating their ideas directly to a fast-growing community of young recreational female golfers. Golf Punk, a hip magazine devoted primarily to tracking golf fashion, appeared recently in Britain, and a growing number of golf clothing lines, as well as established labels introducing golf-apparel departments, have piled on the bandwagon and advertised heavily. With more aggressive colors and curvier designs, looking good may be the only sure thing in one of the world’s most difficult and heartbreaking individual sports.