Have you ever heard someone ask for a tip and the other guy responds with “wear sunscreen”. Haha, very funny, but boy it’s getting hot out. This year, because it’s kind of a pain to put on a ton of sunscreen on, I decided to try wearing long sleeve shirts as long as possible. It’s still working even with 90+ heat in a lot of places!
Long sleeves have a few benefits. The first is of course keeping the sun off your skin. This helps keep your risk of melanoma lower, keeps your skin looking younger, and keeps you from getting a crazy farmer tan. Seems good all around. A second benefit is that it’s supposed to keep you cooler. I’m not sure about that one, but everyone wears long sleeves in the middle east so there must be something to it.
I have two different approaches to my long sleeves. First, there are long sleeve shirts made out of moisture wicking, breathable material. These are a great option and very easy to find these days. The other option is a pair of sun sleeves. These are tighter and designed to cover just your forearms and extending under your short sleeves. Sun sleeves are also made out of high tech fabric, but allow some breathing room under your short sleeves. Plus, you can take these off when you go inside! Here is a picture of a sun sleeve made by Sun Mountain.
The other thing to consider when buying your golf shirts is their UPF, which is similar to SPF for sunscreen. It stands for UV Protection Factor. Clothes inherently have some UPF because they block the sun, but companies are impregnating clothes with a sunscreen like substance to increase your protection from the sun. This seems really smart and makes a lot of sense! Some clothes even have their UPF rating right on their label, so keep your eye out. Generally the UPF will run from 30 to 50 on average.
Anyway, hope those thoughts on sun protection are useful. Hit ‘em long and straight, but don’t forget to protect your skin from sun damage!