Most golf shorts are built from a blend of polyester and a small percentage of elastane, sometimes with nylon added in for a smoother hand feel. That combination is not an accident. Polyester pulls sweat off your skin and dries fast in the sun, while elastane lets the fabric move with your hips through a full turn instead of fighting it. A handful of shorts still use cotton or a cotton blend, and a few premium pieces lean on nylon for a cleaner, more tailored drape.
The short answer to what are golf shorts made of is synthetic performance fabric engineered for heat, sweat, and rotation. The longer answer is worth understanding, because the exact blend changes how a pair feels on a 90-degree afternoon, how it holds a crease, and whether you can wear it to lunch afterward without looking like you just walked off the range.
The core fabrics behind most golf shorts
Nearly every pair you'll pick up falls into one of three material families, and each one solves a different problem. Polyester dominates the performance category because it barely absorbs water and dries quickly, which keeps you from carrying a pound of sweat around the back nine. Nylon shows up when a brand wants a softer, more refined surface and a bit more abrasion resistance. Cotton, the classic, trades quick-drying performance for a broken-in, casual feel that never quite disappeared from the game.
Polyester
Polyester is the workhorse of golf apparel and the base of nearly all technical shorts. It's hydrophobic, meaning it doesn't hold onto moisture, so sweat travels along the fibers to the surface and evaporates instead of sitting against your skin. That's the entire logic behind moisture-wicking claims. Polyester also resists wrinkling, holds color through repeated washes and sun exposure, and shrugs off the odd rain shower better than natural fibers. The tradeoff is that pure polyester can feel slightly plasticky and hold odor, which is why almost no one uses it alone.
Nylon
Nylon is polyester's more expensive cousin, and it earns its place through feel and durability. It has a smoother, silkier surface, resists abrasion from your bag strap and cart seat, and drapes with a cleaner line that reads more like tailored trousers than gym gear. Brands building shorts meant to work at dinner as easily as on the tee often reach for nylon or a nylon-poly blend. It costs more per yard, which is part of why nylon-forward shorts tend to sit at the higher end of the price range, often north of $80.
Cotton and cotton blends
Cotton is the traditionalist's choice and still shows up in relaxed, chino-style golf shorts. It breathes well and feels soft against the skin, but it soaks up sweat and holds it, which is exactly what you don't want in humidity. Pure cotton also wrinkles and can sag once it's damp. Modern versions usually blend cotton with a touch of elastane to fix the sag and add stretch, landing somewhere between old-school comfort and on-course function. If you play early rounds in cool weather and value a natural feel over quick-dry speed, a cotton blend makes sense.
Why elastane and spandex are in almost every pair
Look at the fabric tag on nearly any modern pair and you'll see a small percentage, usually between three and eight percent, of elastane, spandex, or Lycra. Those are three names for the same category of stretch fiber. Even a tiny amount transforms how shorts move, letting the fabric extend and recover so your backswing doesn't tug at the waistband or bind across the thighs. This is the single biggest reason golf shorts feel different from ordinary summer shorts.
The direction of that stretch matters too. Two-way stretch flexes along one axis, while four-way stretch moves in every direction, which is what you want when your body is rotating, bending, and reaching for a ball in the rough. The tech shorts - navy lean on exactly this kind of engineered stretch, so the fabric follows your turn through impact rather than resisting it, and they recover their shape between shots instead of bagging out at the knee. For players who want that mobility across a full set of colors, the performance golf shorts collection is built around the same principle.
How fabric weight and weave change the way shorts feel
Two shorts can share the same polyester-elastane blend and still feel completely different, because weight and weave do a lot of quiet work. Fabric weight is measured in grams per square meter, and lighter fabrics breathe better in heat while heavier ones hold a sharper crease and drape with more structure. A tight, flat weave looks dressier and sheds wind; a looser or textured weave breathes more and reads more casual.
Weight also decides how a pair works off the course. A mid-weight, cleanly woven short bridges the gap between technical wear and everyday clothing, which is central to how Scandinavian design tends to approach golf. The tech shorts - beige use a refined mid-weight fabric that holds its line at the halfway house or a post-round table without the shiny, athletic look that gives a lot of performance shorts away. That structure is why a well-woven pair earns its place in a wardrobe rather than living only in a golf bag. If you prefer a roomier cut in the same considered fabrics, the relaxed fit golf shorts deliver the drape without sacrificing movement.
The finishes and treatments you can't see on the tag
Beyond the raw fibers, most technical golf shorts get chemical and mechanical finishes that shape how they perform in real conditions. A DWR treatment, short for durable water repellent, is a coating that makes light rain and dew bead up and roll off instead of soaking in, which matters on a wet morning tee time. Anti-odor finishes, often silver-based, slow the bacteria that make synthetics smell after a hot round. UPF ratings tell you how much of the sun's UV the fabric blocks, useful over four hours with no shade.
These treatments are why two identical-looking pairs can behave so differently in the field, and they're a fair part of what you pay for at the premium end. The construction details matter as much as the coatings, too. The tech shorts - dusty olive pair a fast-drying woven face with clean, reinforced seams and a secure waistband, so the shorts stay put through a walking round and keep their finish wash after wash rather than degrading after a season.
Choosing the right fabric for how and where you play
The best blend depends less on a spec sheet and more on your climate and your habits. If you play in genuine heat and humidity, prioritize a lightweight, high-polyester fabric with four-way stretch and a moisture-wicking finish, and keep the color light to reflect sun. If your rounds are cooler and you value a natural, broken-in feel, a cotton-rich blend with a little stretch will serve you better than a slick synthetic.
Match the fabric to color choices as well, since darker tones hide grass and dirt on courses with softer conditions while lighter tones stay cooler underfoot in summer. Players who want a deep, versatile base color often gravitate toward the navy blue golf shorts, which pair with almost any polo, while those chasing the warm-weather standard reach for the golf shorts beige. Understanding what golf shorts are made of turns a wall of nearly identical options into a straightforward decision about heat, movement, and how far you want a single pair to travel beyond the course.
Scandinavian design has always argued that performance and restraint belong in the same garment, and that philosophy runs through every fabric choice Local Rule makes. To see how those blends translate into finished pieces, explore the men's golf shorts at Local Rule.
