To play golf in Brockton, leave your jeans, boots, and t-shirt at home

BROCKTON -- Scratch the sweatpants and tank tops. The city is teeing off on subpar attire, ruling that the hole-riddled jeans and paint-splattered sweatshirts that are increasingly dotting the municipal D.W. Field Golf Course are out of bounds.

Tired of sloppy duffers hitting the links in clothes better suited for pickup basketball, the city's Parks Commission this month unanimously approved a new dress code that requires collared shirts. It also bans golfers from wearing jeans, cutoff shorts, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and boots.

The new rules, which take effect officially on April 1, have been posted at the clubhouse since the 18-hole course opened for spring two weeks ago. The rules have generated some grumbling; some players say that a dress code is too highbrow for a ''modest muni" in a blue-collar town.

But club and city officials said the stricter dress requirements would restore a modicum of decorum to a genteel game known as a model of propriety.

''Guys are coming straight from work, paint all over their clothes. Some guys have so much sheetrock or plaster on them they look like ghosts," said Brian Mattos, the course's golf pro. ''You shouldn't play golf dressed like a construction worker."

Mattos said he is sharing the code with people who call to reserve tee times and is gently reminding golfers who run afoul of the new rules. Most are obliging, he said, and show up with a collared shirt for their next round. But a defiant few have clung to their preferred casual garb, including one duffer who wore jeans to the course four times before Mattos refused to let him play. A three-mulligan limit, he quipped.

''They're trying to push us," Mattos said with a sigh. ''I've had to tell a few people more than once."

Despite the brisk, cloudy weather, well over 100 golfers flocked to the fairways yesterday after a winter's layoff. Most wore windbreakers, trousers, and leather loafers, and welcomed the new rules. But the less nattily attired said a dress code confirmed the sport's snobbish, stuffy stereotypes.

''It's everything I hate about golf," said Chris Stanbrook, 25, of Allston, wearing a baggy sweatshirt, long shorts, and white over-the-calf socks. ''It's pompous. For a public golf course, it seems a tad exclusive."

Opinions on the dress code consistently cut across fashion lines. Dan Spatola, 25, of Easton, preppily attired in white slacks and a windbreaker, said he thought jeans and a T-shirt were fine for a no-frills public course where taxpayers foot the bill. It's not Augusta National, after all.

''This isn't really that classy of a place," he said. ''A course like this, you should be able to wear what you want."

Others agreed that a modest municipal golf course in a gritty, working-class town shouldn't put on airs. And some said it was hypocritical for the organizers to expect players to spruce up their wardrobe without first sprucing up the course.

''The city has to look at itself," said Dave Hathaway, a 36-year-old from Bridgewater who plays at the course a few times a week.

''You don't put out a class B product and expect a class A clientele. And this is a blue-collar golf course. It's not like we're going to the Ridge Club," an exclusive Cape Cod course.

At the same time, Hathaway, a union roofer who was dressed in prototypical golf gear, said requiring golfers to keep a collared shirt and pair of slacks in their locker isn't much to ask.

Mattos and John Dorgan, superintendent of the Brockton Parks Department, agreed, saying most public courses are a good deal stricter about dress codes.

''You don't go to Ruth's Chris [an upscale steak house] wearing painter's pants," Mattos said.

Dorgan, who said the course brings in about $800,000 for the city annually, said some of the poorly dressed players look like ''ragamuffins." And Spatola's playing partner, Paul Quinn, said ''proper golf attire" shows respect for a storied, time-honored game.

''It's tradition," he said.

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com