The fashions (and a bear) at the Senior Open

Expect to see Jim Thorpe in bright colors today. The burly, 6-foot golfer with a loud Southern drawl likes to make a fashion statement.

Each night of a tournament, he'll lay out at least three outfits. The choice comes down to "how I'm playing," he said.

Since Thorpe made the cut - the 60 lowest scorers and ties advanced to today's third round of the U.S. Senior Open - he's most likely in a good mood.

"Sometimes I'll put on a happy color because that's the end of the work week," he said. "Like this Sunday, I hope I'm playing good. I'm wearing red and white with some black and white golf shoes, trying to make a little statement. That's what it's all about out here."

Where else but fairways - except, perhaps, the runway - could one get away with mixing plaids, stripes and polka dots?

Hubert Green said he misses the knickers - those goofy, slightly billowed cropped pants.

"I wore them before Payne (Stewart) did," Green said of the late golfer, who wore tam-o'-shanter caps and patterned plus-fours, a type of knickers. "I wore them for a while. I was trying to get a contract with the company that made them and they didn't do it, so I said to heck with it."

But fashion, however hokey, is an element of golf that Thorpe wants to preserve.

"Remember Doug Sanders and those guys, they wore their red, white and blue shoes?" said Thorpe, referring to the golfer nicknamed the "Peacock of the Fairways."

"I thought you could wear a bunch of outfits with beautiful shoes with red, white and blue, patent leather and stuff like that," Thorpe said. "Now the guys come out and play in tennis shoes. Golf wasn't designed to be played in tennis shoes. You're supposed to have a little flair out there."

White belts, white shoes and polyester have given way to muted, neutral-colored performance fabrics, with the most outlandish colors being aqua and orange. Designs and patterns have gone the way of the dodo.

"Doug had I don't know how many different pairs of shoes, and the colors tangerine and plum and colors that you wouldn't be caught dead in them, but he wore them and wore them well," said Jay Haas, as he reflected on golf styles of the past. "But I think back in the late '60s and '70s, there were some pretty strange-looking things that everybody wore."

As they say - in fashion, what goes around comes around.

PGA Tour players such as Ian Poulter, who designs a clothing line, have been seen sporting styles that are throwbacks to Champions Tour players in their younger days.

"We were walking with the bell bottoms and the wide white belts and look what's coming back - the white belts, the skin-tight shirts," said Fuzzy Zoeller, adding he sticks to wearing whatever is "free" or "somewhat clean."

Hale Irwin, who was featured on the June 24, 1974, cover of Sports Illustrated wearing a white-billed visor, checkered polo shirt, white belt and white shoes, said his trend-setting days have passed.

"Most of us have kind of been there, done that, or maybe have thought about it and rejected it for the most part, thank goodness," Irwin said. "Can you see some of us out there in outfits like that? Come on. I mean, I've been ribbed so many times about the SI cover in '74, the white belt. Now you don't see those guys with dark belts. They're all white belts. So give me a break. ... We were setting the stage for these kids."

Thorpe, who was sporting an apricot-colored polo and tan plaid pants incorporating yellow, pink and orange tones Wednesday, said he wishes more golfers would step out of the neutral zone and bring back fashions of old.

"There were half a dozen guys that used to wear those knickers and stuff," he said. "See, I thought that stuff was cool. Payne Stewart and those guys, that stuff was so cool. You miss it. I'm not saying the guys are a bunch of clones, but they all look alike. Me, I'm going to be different."

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Contact the writer: 476-4803 or kate.crandall@gazette.com.