For those who missed it, a video on the PGA Tour’s Twitter account showed American J.J. Spaun (with his shirt untucked) hitting his approach close at the 10th hole of the second round, the resulting birdie getting him within two shots of the then lead.

The shot itself was excellent but the ‘controversy’ that followed was the usual tiresome nonsense.

More annoying than the chorus who howled about an untucked shirt being a problem, however, are those who immediately labelled said chorus as ‘traditionalists’.

The fact so many in the game feel this is an issue important enough to comment on is concerning but adding the now weaponised ‘traditionalist’ insult only adds to the offence.

Having one’s shirt tucked in on a golf course has about as much to do with ‘tradition’ as a GPS rangefinder.

The people who find an untucked shirt upsetting enough to take to social media to complain about it aren’t ‘traditionalists’, they’re fascists.

Regardless of your position on how much of a golfer’s shirt should be visible below the waist (I personally think a tucked in shirt looks neater), to pretend it has any meaningful bearing on the game one way or another is plain dumb.

J.J. Spaun's untucked shirt incredibly caused a storm on social media. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Which only makes it more disappointing that it has attracted so much attention.

Those who want to dictate how others dress aren’t interested in golf, they’re interested in exclusion. And that doesn’t make them traditionalists, it makes them whatever the opposite is.

Traditionalists, in my view, are those in the industry who work tirelessly to introduce people to the game and make them feel welcome.

The ones who fight for public golf and more access for more diverse groups. Those whose only objective is to make playing the game more fun and to an ever-broader audience.

Traditionalists are those for whom courses are not only integral to the game but among its most important assets.

They’re not some group of naysayers who think hoodies are bad and golfers should all go back to playing hickories and featheries.

Non golfers who stumble across these debates in the game must be genuinely perplexed at how golf has survived all this time.

There are much bigger and more important issues requiring the energy and focus of golfers than what clothes people choose to wear and how they choose to wear them.

And the sooner we all stop talking about the trivial and focussing on the real problems confronting the game, the better off we will be for it.