Stubborn redneck rather risk a burn at the RBC Heritage than pop his collar

I don’t do it.

Won’t do it.

Won’t ever do it.

And I’m a man of my word.

At least as far as this is concerned.

This — the popped, or upturned, collar — will never (dis)grace my shirts. There are many reasons why. Or at least two.

No. 1: My present build fits better in a more flowing shirt — a Hawaiian-style garment some would mistakenly call “ugly” — and less so in a clingy, tighter-fitting polo, which seems to be the most popular collar-popping attire.

No. 2: I don’t like popped collars.

And yet I find myself being sympathetic toward them and their wearers — who are few and far between — at this week’s RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing golf tournament, here in Sea Pines at Harbour Town Golf Links. We’ll come back to that. First, a disclaimer, a brief history lesson and some self–flagellation.

The disclaimer: This is not, per se, a commentary on fashion. Based on the varying, genre-defying feedback I’ve gotten on my Hawaiian shirts, I don’t presume to be in style. I’m simply saying I don’t like popped collars. And based on 30 minutes of internet research and a quick survey of my co-workers, I’m comfortable with that stance.

The history: The polo shirt, though created decades earlier, “must have peaked as a signifier of prep insidership in the 1970s,” Troy Patterson wrote in 2015 for New York Times Magazine. “By 1982, the casual version of the Ivy League look had emerged as mass style. (Garment company) Izod moved $400 million worth of shirts that year.” And, obviously, they’re still popular.

In terms of the collar, Patterson said the “flap of fabric, so often superfluous to function, frames the face and caps the body, proving essential to tone.”

And of the popped collar, Patterson write: “To upturn it, reappropriating the collar as a haughty ruff, is controversial; the wearer risks resembling an antagonist from an ’80s comedy, one of the snooty stooges upon whom the nerds revenge themselves.”

I don’t like snooty stooges.

When I was younger, I knew a guy who wore two polos at the same time and, of course, popped the collars of each. I didn’t know the guy well and, well, that’s because I didn’t want to get to know him. I don’t think the popped collars were the only deterrent, but that’s the thing I most remember about him.

I was judgmental, more so than I am now ... though I still find myself rolling my eyes at the popped collars I’m seeing in Harbour Town this week.

Again, there aren’t many of them.

Still, there’s no excuse for it, right? I mean, not a single PGA Tour pro I saw today on the course — all of whom are wearing polos — had their collar upturned. And GQ Magazine, at least in January 2016, said, when it comes to polo shirts, “we are categorically anti-popped collar.”

Why would anyone do it?

I ran into Charlie Hawes, a towering man from Lansing, Mich., in bright red polo shirt, behind Hole No. 13. His collar? Turned up.

He doesn’t usually pop it. When asked why, he shrugged and said, “It’s kind of uncomfortable.”

You know why he turned it up today: the sun. Got to protect the neck.

Gregg DeCrane, whom I encountered on the front nine, said that was his mission.

The Ohio native and current Sunset Beach, N.C., resident had, in addition to a popped collar, a wide-brim hat that offered double protection for that sensitive spot atop the shoulders.

He’s not a regular collar-popper, per se: “It’s not a one-time thing, it’s a sun-time thing,” he said, joking that he didn’t have much need for neck protection when he lived in the colder, grayer Midwest.

Mark Collins, who sported a lime-green-striped polo, stood near the practice putting green as I neared the clubhouse.

The Hilton Head resident’s been coming to the Heritage for 18 years, he said.

“I’m not into fashion statements,” he said, smiling slightly.

He, too, had popped his collar to keep the sun off his neck. His wife, he said, would be mad if he got a sunburn — he hadn’t worn any sunscreen.

Neither had I.

And my neck is burned.

Was burned, or burning, yesterday when I sat in the stands near No. 18 watching some groups make their turns.

I could have prevented it, I guess.

But I was too cool to pop my collar.

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Stubborn redneck rather risk a burn at the RBC Heritage than pop his collar."