For as long as I can remember, the golf industry’s rallying cry has been ‘grow the game.’ We looked at ageing female memberships and panicked. We needed youth and women who didn’t look at a golf course as an exhibit of outdated social expectations but as a place to actually have fun.
Well, the future has finally walked through the pro shop doors. They’re wearing fashion-forward golf gear, they’re documenting their rounds on social media, and they’re bringing a vibrance that the game has desperately lacked. So why are we suddenly trying to show them the exit?
The recent discourse on the Women’s Golf Lounge highlights a painful irony. On one side, you have younger women, the very lifeblood of the sport’s future, feeling like intruders in their own clubs. On the other, you have a brigade of traditionalists, who I believe are hiding behind the shield of etiquette and the rules to mask what is essentially a fear of change.
One of my favourite responses to this growing divide, and one I agree with wholeheartedly, summed it up perfectly: “Women are their own worst enemy. The young uns, the old uns, the weekend ladies, the week ladies… we’re just women playing golf. I feel we need to stop being obsessed with age and all make an effort to get on. These posts don’t put women or women’s golf in a good light.”
Let’s be honest, etiquette is often used as a convenient gatekeeping tool. When an anonymous poster complains about mobile phones or a slower pace, they are often really saying, “You don’t look or act like me, and that makes me uncomfortable.”
(Image credit: Future)
I find this incredibly frustrating because it focuses on the wrong things. Yes, pace of play matters. Yes, knowing the basic rules is helpful. But those are skills that can be taught. You cannot teach someone to feel welcome. Once a new golfer is made to feel small by a sneer from an older member in the locker room, that golfer is gone, and she’ll take her friends with her.
This is a fundamental culture clash. The older generation views golf as a sanctuary of silence and strict adherence; the younger generation views it as a social experience. These two worlds are colliding on the fairways, and the resistance to change is massive. But the most telling part of this issue isn’t actually the anonymous complaint, it’s the backlash against it.
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