You may be right about that! (And who should know better about avatars than AvatarLee? 
)
I did clear my cache (both browser & flash) earlier today... but not in the browser in which I play the golf game! Yet the flash cache is shared by all browsers, isn't it? I play the game in Chrome, but usually visit these forums in Opera. You just can't do that simultaneously, because you'd get logged out in both browsers, I believe. (I'm typing this post in Opera right now; overall a better & faster browser than Chrome, I think, especially thanks to the host of configurable keyboard shortcuts.)
Sometimes I equip my bag in Opera before launching the game in Chrome. I may have set those options in Opera some time ago, and they may have got erased tonight when Opera's cache was cleared. I would still find it surprising if these particular game options weren't stored server-side. The equipment of your bag is definitely stored server-side, why not game options as well?
(Also, Rotate Avatars is said to be the default option, yet it keeps resetting itself to Do Not Rotate Avatars for me.)