Golf history was made in South Africa on Thursday as male competitors at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on the European Tour were for the first time allowed to wear shorts.

Organisers said they were thinking primarily about the competitors’ health when they made their radical concession – one which broke more than a century and a half of custom rules, and etiquette.

Temperatures reached 38C in yesterday’s first round and are expected to peak at 40C in the third and fourth rounds on the weekend.

“A lot of players were concerned about the possibility of extreme temperatures,” said David Williams, the tournament director. “In this heat it can be pretty unbearable out there in trousers.”

Yet the reaction indicated that this was, indeed, a giant, barelegged, stride for the ancient game.

The traditionalists were not happy with the revolution taking place at the Leopard Creek Country Club, on the border of the Kruger National Park.

As the competitors took to the spectacular greens, with rhinos in the background, one observer vented his anger on Twitter, saying that the participants resembled a “stag do in Portugal”.