These are the five golf pants we would buy right now, counted down from No. 5 to No. 1. Four of the five have a pleat, which says a lot about where golf trousers have gone in the last two years: roomier, softer, and closer to what you would wear to dinner.
The countdown opens with three pairs with plenty of personality: lululemon’s casual trouser that golfers keep wearing on the course, a pant with a movable pleat, and a cotton trouser from Cape Town. It finishes with the two technical ones. Sentinel’s MajoTech and Manors’ Greenskeeper both use stretch nylon with a water-resistant finish, and both handle a cold, windy Austin morning without looking like rain gear.
Each one gets a write-up, a quote from the brand, its own photography and then the card. Prices were read from each brand’s store on 24 September 2026, and Odd Ritual’s again on 26 September, when it had been marked down. Four are in US dollars; Odd Ritual prices in rand, and we have left that as the store shows it.
No. 5 · lululemon, Vancouver · $148 · read 24 September 2026A pleated trouser in lululemon’s Luxtreme fabric, sold as casual wear and worn by plenty of golfers anyway.
The Daydrift is not sold as a golf pant; lululemon files it under Casual. It plays like one anyway. The fabric is Luxtreme, 69% nylon and 31% Lycra, which wicks sweat, stretches four ways and dries quickly. The waistband is stretch with a hidden drawcord, there is a phone sleeve inside the hand pocket and the back pockets close with hidden snaps.
The latest version added belt loops, which is what moved it onto this list. The cut is roomy through the seat and thigh and falls straight to the hem, and lululemon says it is meant to puddle a little on the shoe. It comes in a 28″ or 30″ inseam. The Deep Forest colour is a green that works with almost any polo.
No. 4 · Students, California · $135 · read 24 September 2026A velcro waist that moves the pleat, so one pair of trousers has more than one shape. Two sizes cover waists 30 to 40.
Students calls the Science Pant the most unusual trouser in its range, and the reason is the waist. A velcro adjuster lets you move where the pleat sits, which changes how the whole leg falls. The brand says the idea came from military trousers. It is made from a 90% nylon, 10% spandex slack fabric that stretches and breathes.
Because the waist adjusts, it comes in only two sizes: Size 1 for waists 30 to 34 and Size 2 for 34 to 40. It is the least expensive pant on the list at $135, and the one most likely to get a question on the first tee. Founder Michael Huynh started out designing streetwear, and trousers were always his speciality. Students also turned up in our fall drops roundup this week.
No. 3 · Odd Ritual, Cape Town · R 990, down from R 1,300 · read 26 September 2026Cotton twill, front pleats and a carrot-shaped leg, made locally in Cape Town. Priced in rand, the currency the store shows.
Odd Ritual is the only brand here working in cotton rather than a performance fabric. The Pleated Daily Trouser is 235gsm cotton twill with front pleats, a stretch band across the back of the waist. It is made in Cape Town. The store has it marked down to R 990 from R 1,300.
The embroidery is what makes it an Odd Ritual trouser. There are two pieces, both in the same gold-toned thread. The brand’s RR monogram sits inside a small ring on the front of the thigh, just below the pocket, where you would normally find nothing at all. The Odd Ritual script is stitched low on the back of the leg, a few inches above the hem, where it only shows when you walk away. The brand calls them “refined finishing details,” and that is fair: on the black, from a few feet away, they read as texture rather than logos.
It sits third because it is the most honest pair of trousers on the list. There is no stretch-nylon trick to it; it is a pleated cotton trouser cut wide at the top and narrow at the ankle, and it looks right with a polo, a knit or a tee. The black is in stock in M, L and XL; the khaki has sold through. We wrote about the brand in our Odd Ritual Brand to Know.
No. 2 · Sentinel, Minneapolis · $210 · read 24 September 2026Italian MajoTech cloth, cut and sewn in New York, with waterproof zips and a cord lock at the ankle.
Sentinel built the MajoTech Trouser around its fabric, and it shows. The fabric comes from MajoTech, an Italian mill the brand says has been weaving since 1941. It is 97% nylon and 3% spandex with a DWR face, four-way stretch and a wrinkle-resistant hand. The trousers are cut and sewn in New York.
The details are where it earns second place. It has YKK waterproof zippers, a Japanese elastic band inside the waist, KaneM snaps and an adjustable cord lock inside each ankle, so you can taper the hem on a wet morning. Sentinel describes the cut as “tailored without being slim,” and it is the only pant here without a pleat. If you are between sizes, the brand says to size down. There is more on the brand in our Sentinel Brand to Know.
No. 1 · Manors, London · $172 · read 24 September 2026It has double pleats, workwear pockets and a recycled stretch fabric that shrugs off wind and light rain. Seven colours on the store.
The Greenskeeper is the pair we reach for first. Manors cuts it from a 178gsm fabric that is 93% recycled nylon and 7% elastane, with four-way stretch and a PFC-free water-resistant finish. It has a full elastic waistband with a drawcord, a gusset for the swing and eight pockets in a workwear layout. Up front sit two deep pleats that give it a relaxed, slightly old-fashioned shape.
That combination is why it tops the list. It moves like a technical pant and looks like something a groundskeeper would wear, which is exactly the point of the name. Manors ambassador Adem Wahbi said in 2023 that the pockets “look stylish and just different from what you usually see in golf.” On a windy Austin morning it keeps the cold off, and by the back nine it still looks like trousers rather than track pants. We covered the whole brand in Manors, Revisited.
These five came out of a much longer look at the category. The Pants Edit has eighteen trousers, one per brand, if none of these is quite your cut.
Our ranking, as of September 2026: 1. Manors Recycled Greenskeeper Trouser, 2. Sentinel MajoTech Trouser, 3. Odd Ritual Pleated Daily Trouser, 4. Students Science Adjustable Pleated Pants, 5. lululemon Daydrift Relaxed-Fit Pleated Trouser.
Four of the five. The Manors Greenskeeper has double front pleats, the Odd Ritual and lululemon trousers have front pleats, and the Students Science Pant has a pleat you can move with its velcro waist. The Sentinel MajoTech is a classic flat-front cut.
The Manors Greenskeeper and the Sentinel MajoTech. Both use stretch nylon with a water-resistant finish; the Sentinel also has waterproof YKK zips and ankle cord locks.
The Students Science Adjustable Pleated Pants at $135 on 24 September 2026. The lululemon Daydrift is $148, the Manors Greenskeeper $172 and the Sentinel MajoTech $210.
Odd Ritual is based in Cape Town and its store prices in South African rand, including for visitors from the US. We show the price the store shows, R 990 (marked down from R 1,300 when we checked on 26 September 2026), rather than converting it.
lululemon lists it as casual wear rather than golf. It is made from the brand's Luxtreme fabric, which wicks sweat and stretches four ways, and the latest version has belt loops, which makes it easy to wear on the course.
