White belts? Can disco be far behind?

As was evident on Thursday's opening day of the AT&T National at Aronimink, golf and fashion sense, much like bowling and sobriety, are mutually exclusive terms.

Given that their clothing tastes tend to range from garish to ghastly, it's always been difficult to know whether golfers are way ahead of the fashion curve or they wiped out on the first turn back in 1966.

Anyway, after a day at Aronimink, one fashion trend was in clear focus: white belts.

Are they in again? Or have all these guys been to a garage sale at Homero Blancas' house?

Since cell-phone use is prohibited at most PGA events, it's possible the golfers never got the news that white belts went out about the same time as Deny Terrio and the CB-radio craze.

But in a shocking example of a retro trend, they are reappearing. Their use has gained momentum in recent years, especially among those golfers too young to remember the first white-belt era, which in terms of 1970s epidemics was rivaled only by Legionnaires' disease.

Gary Woodland wore one Thursday. So did Sean O'Hair. And Alex Prugh, who should have worn a white name tag, too. And dozens of other young golfers in the 118-man field. Most who favor them are approaching 30. We can only hope they pass a mirror before they get there.

During their initial heyday, white belts became so ubiquitous that players who wore them along with matching white shoes were said to be donning "the full Cleveland," an insult directed at the golf-equipment company and not the city LeBron James abandoned.

As tastes changed, the snickers eventually grew so loud that by the mid-1980s, white belts, like U.S. golfers, had faded from the scene entirely. It wasn't until the early 2000s that Sweden's Jesper Parnevik reintroduced them. (Come to think of it, Parnevik also was responsible for introducing his nanny to Tiger Woods. That's a pretty bad 0 for 2 in the introduction game.)

Parnevik also wore caps with upturned bills. Why his colleagues ignored that fashion quirk but picked up on the white belts is a golfing mystery that rivals the disappearance of Sergio Garcia's heart.

Then again, golf fashions always have been derivative. The ubiquitous saddle shoes were borrowed from Catholic school girls, the plaid pants from Princeton reunions. And Rickie Fowler modeled his giant-brimmed hats on the USS Kitty Hawk.

At this rate, in 2050 the Aronimink Golf Club probably will be located in Ephrata, Pa.

Like restless early Americans, the exclusive golf course that is hosting this weekend's AT&T National has trekked relentlessly westward. In its 115-year history, Aronimink has gone from a remote area of the city, then even closer to Philadelphia's western edge, then to a near-in western suburb, and most recently to the tonier fringes beyond.

These days, the Woodland Tabernacle Baptist Church, surrounded by rowhouses and trolley tracks, stands at 52d and Chester in Southwest Philadelphia, on the site where Aronimink was born in 1896.

Eleven years later, the club moved elsewhere in West Philadelphia, less than two miles away, to a site near 54th and Whitby that today is even more intensely urban than 52d and Chester.

Not long afterward, the club's westward flight continued, with a third Aronimink rising in Drexel Hill, on a spot now occupied by the Drexelbrook apartment complex.

Then, in 1926, the club bought its current 300 acres in fox-hunting country outside Newtown Square and commissioned Donald Ross to construct a golf course, where white belts always would be welcome.

To get the real feel of a PGA event and a course such as hilly Aronimink, you've got to walk - and rappel - it all. Here are some of the more interesting things my Sherpa guide and I spotted on our trek:

The Kodak Challenge Hole (No. 17): Doesn't Kodak have enough challenges? How can a film company that doesn't make film afford to give away a million dollars to a millionaire?

CBS broadcaster and Hall of Fame golfer Nick Faldo was driving a golf cart as he scouted the front nine. His companion was wearing gold shoes and gold-spangled pants, but did not appear to be Fowler.

The 18th hole, where Gary Player won the '62 PGA Championship hitting driver and 3-wood, has been lengthened and is still a driver and short iron for most in this 2011 field.

No matter how bad the economy is, golf tournaments such as the AT&T National appear to be recession-proof.

The program was loaded with advertisements from upscale shops and businesses. Most of the spectators were tanned, prosperous-looking, and seemingly bound for Palm Beach. And the grounds were awash in luxury autos.

Mercedes is a sponsor, and between all the sleek S-Class courtesy cars it provided and the other Benzes, BMWs, and Porsches driven by members and well-heeled spectators, there was more German steel at Aronimink than at the Krupp Works.

1. If Aronimink can be set up to challenge the world's best golfers the way it did Thursday, why couldn't the USGA have made Congressional a little tougher than a Bob Hope Classic course for the recent U.S. Open there?

2. Isn't Adam Scott a little young to be using a long putter?

3. Is the fact that so few of the world's best players showed up here a reflection on Tiger Woods' declining popularity, inside and outside the ropes?