Pubgolf Outfit Ideas: What to Wear for a Round

Updated August 2026

The classic Pubgolf outfit is a golf polo, a visor or cap, and something loud on the legs: checked trousers, bright shorts or a golf skirt. Most groups pick one shared theme so everyone matches on the photos. Nothing technical is needed, but you will be walking between 9 or 18 pubs, so comfortable shoes matter more than anything else.

What do you wear for Pubgolf?

Pubgolf outfits copy the golf course and push it a bit further than any real club would allow. The core three are a collared polo shirt, a visor or flat cap, and bold trousers or shorts. Add a glove, a towel over the shoulder or a tartan pattern and you are there.

The point is that your group looks like a team. Pubgolf is a pub crawl scored like golf, so the outfit is part of the joke: you are playing a serious round of golf, in a city centre, with a scorecard on your phone.

Two practical notes before you buy anything. Most pubs are relaxed about fancy dress but some city centre bars enforce a dress code after 8pm, so keep the look smart enough to get through the door. And you are covering real distance on foot, often a mile or more across a full round, so trainers beat anything with a heel.

What is the classic Pubgolf outfit?

The classic look is a white or brightly coloured polo shirt, a visor, checked or tartan trousers, and white trainers. It reads instantly as golf, it photographs well, and every part of it is easy to find. Most groups build from this and add one twist of their own.

Piece by piece, the classic kit is:

• Polo shirt. Collared, ideally a colour the whole group shares. White, pastel yellow and pale blue photograph best at night.
• Visor or flat cap. The single most recognisable piece. A visor says golf louder than anything else you can wear.
• Checked or tartan trousers. Golf trousers, pyjama bottoms in a check pattern, or bright shorts if the weather is on your side.
• White trainers. Comfortable, and they finish the look. Skip the golf shoes, the spikes are miserable on pavement.
• A glove. One single glove on one hand is a small detail that gets noticed.

Pubgolf outfit ideas for women

The most popular women's Pubgolf outfit is a polo shirt or fitted white top with a pleated tennis or golf skirt, knee-high socks and a visor. It is comfortable for a long walk, it works in most venues, and it reads as golf without needing anything expensive.

Other combinations that work well:

• Pastel polo, denim shorts, white trainers and a cap.
• Golf skirt with argyle knee socks, the classic country club look.
• A sleeveless polo dress, one item, done in five minutes.
• Matching colour by team: one group in pink, one in green, so the photos sort themselves.

For a hen do, most groups put the bride in a different colour from the rest, usually white while everyone else wears one shared shade. That single decision does more for the photos than any other outfit choice. More ideas for planning the day are on the hen do Pubgolf page.

Pubgolf outfit ideas for men

The standard men's Pubgolf outfit is a polo shirt, checked trousers or bright shorts, a visor and white trainers. Groups often go one step further with knee-high socks pulled over the trousers, an argyle jumper, or a full 1970s golf look in colours nobody would wear on an actual course.

Reliable variations:

• Argyle jumper vest over a polo, the golf club committee look.
• Tartan or novelty check trousers, the louder the better.
• Plain polo with a bold cap, if you want the joke without the commitment.
• Matching team polos with a nickname printed on the back, which doubles as your name on the scorecard.

Stag groups often dress the stag differently from everyone else, in a plus-four suit, a full tartan set or the brightest thing available. Everyone else stays in one colour so he stands out in every photo. The stag do Pubgolf page covers the rest of the planning.

Do you need a Pubgolf hat or visor?

You do not need one, but a visor is the cheapest way to make an outfit read as golf. It is the piece people recognise instantly in a photo, it costs a few pounds, and it works over any shirt. A flat cap or bucket hat does the same job with a different flavour.

If you buy one thing for the round, buy the visor. A plain polo with a visor looks like Pubgolf; the same polo without one just looks like a polo.

Pubgolf fancy dress themes for groups

Group themes work better than individual costumes because Pubgolf is a team game with a shared scorecard. Pick one theme, tell everyone the week before, and keep it cheap enough that nobody drops out over it. These are the themes that hold up across a full round.

• Country club. Argyle, pastels, visors and jumpers over the shoulders. The default for a reason.
• Tartan. One tartan for the whole group. Loud, warm and easy to find.
• Colour teams. Split into two or three teams by shirt colour. Useful when you are actually playing teams against each other.
• 1970s golf. Flares, wide collars, moustaches. Photographs brilliantly.
• Caddie and player. Half the group in white caddie bibs, half in full golf kit.
• One item only. Everyone wears a visor and nothing else is prescribed. The lowest effort option that still works.

Whatever you pick, keep it walkable and warm enough. A theme that looks brilliant in the first pub and miserable by the fourth is the wrong theme for a route that runs across a city centre.

What should you actually wear for a full round?

Comfortable shoes, layers you can carry, and pockets. A round of 9 or 18 holes moves through several neighbourhoods on foot and takes a few hours, so the outfit has to survive walking, standing and British weather. Everything else is decoration.

The three things groups regret most often:

• New shoes. Break them in first or wear old ones. Blisters end rounds.
• No coat. A cloakroom is not guaranteed, so bring something you can tie round your waist.
• No pockets. You are scoring on your phone all evening. Somewhere safe to put it matters.

Because Pubgolf runs from your phone browser, there is nothing else to carry: no printed cards, no pens, no paperwork. Your route, your scorecard and the running leaderboard all live on the link. That is one less thing the outfit has to accommodate.

Where do you get Pubgolf outfits?

Most of a Pubgolf outfit comes from what people already own, plus one or two cheap additions. Visors, checked trousers and argyle knitwear turn up in supermarket clothing aisles, charity shops and online fancy dress shops. Set a budget in the group chat before anyone starts ordering.

A sensible split: everyone brings their own polo and trainers, and one person buys the shared item in bulk, usually the visors or a set of matching socks. It keeps the cost per person low and guarantees the group actually matches, which is the whole point.

Pubgolf outfit questions

Is fancy dress required for Pubgolf?

No. Pubgolf works perfectly well in normal clothes, and plenty of groups play without dressing up at all. The outfit is a tradition rather than a rule, and no part of the scoring depends on it.

Will pubs let us in wearing fancy dress?

Usually yes, though some city centre venues tighten their dress code later in the evening. Golf themed outfits are smart enough to pass in most places, which is part of why the theme has lasted. If your group is large, a quick check with the busier venues on your route is worth the effort.

What is the easiest Pubgolf outfit?

A polo shirt you already own plus a visor. That is it. It takes one purchase, costs a few pounds and still reads as Pubgolf in every photo.

Can you play Pubgolf without matching outfits?

Yes, and it makes no difference to the game. Pubgolf is strictly 18+, and the round is scored on your card, not your kit. Everyone plays from their own phone on one shared scorecard regardless of what they are wearing.

Ready to plan the round?

Once the outfits are sorted you need a route. PubgolfClub has ready made editions for 45 UK cities and 5 in Ireland, each a curated run of pubs with a set drink and a par at every hole, delivered as an instant link by email and played in your phone browser. Browse them on the Pubgolf by City page, or build your own round in any town with the Route Builder.

New to the game? The How to Play guide covers holes, pars and scoring in a couple of minutes.