WITH GRANT DODD tour tales & true The digest

Local rules
Amazingly for the 21st century, archaic and outdated practices still abound
at some golf clubs.

M
y great friend and mentor,
the late Len Evans, spoke
often of playing with his
mate Jim Parks at the ultra-
exclusive Preston Trail Golf Club in Dallas,
Texas. According to Len, there were only
two rules. One must not sit naked in the
main bar area and you must not drive your
buggy within two yards of the hole. Apart
from that everything was fair game.
Preston Trail only has a few hundred
members, most of them industrialists or
oilmen with more zeroes on their bank
statements than they could count. It is a
hallowed, members-only world that few
ever experience. Funny, then, that Len
always recounted that it was less snobby Venerable Muirfield
and elitist than most golf clubs in England in Scotland has long
held stringent rules on
and Australia that he had been part of. its do’s and don’ts.
Interesting thing, snobbery. It has
always somehow been associated with
golf, a sport historically seen as a pastime of the rich and idle, and one America aside, we know that there is a complex rationale for
that has generally had marked socio-economic barriers to entry. Golf the difficulties at home in Australia. Greater work demands, lack of
in Australia is arguably the most egalitarian of nearly any country in flexibility in regard to tee-times, increased expectations of the role that
the world and yet the game here still tries, in numerous instances, to parents should play in the parenting process, increased membership
adhere to strictures and exclusionary attitudes of bygone eras. fees and the introduction of high quality resort-style golf courses with
Little would better illustrate golf’s looming irrelevancy to the needs no barriers to play has given many people a range of options and
and expectations of a modern world than a visit to The Heritage Golf reasons to let go of their traditional membership ties.
and Country Club in Victoria’s Yarra Valley late last year. In response to But attitude and exclusion are undoubtedly a component part of
a polite request for a sandwich and a juice at the club’s spike bar, I was the reason for the stagnation. The most telling statistic in this respect
told that I must leave the area immediately and move to the opposite is the fact that the one area showing growth in rounds played and
side of the bar. Why? Well, I “wasn’t a member”. Given that there was revenue in Australia is independent resort-style courses. The common
no one in the bar at the time other than the group I was with (two of denominator here is that there are no barriers to entry and all and
whom were club members), one wonders what purpose this officious sundry have the opportunity to take part in a relaxed and inclusive
charade was meant to achieve. golf experience.
If it was designed to offend, then mission accomplished. More Viewed in isolation, such encounters as the one mentioned above
pointedly, though, how likely is it that someone new to the game and are no big deal, but in reality they are symptomatic of a game out of
less attuned to golf’s archaic and puerile fascination with pretension touch with its future. The shortcomings, both socially and structurally,
would be motivated to return following such a confrontation? of the golf model that we have grown up with are becoming more
RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES

Perhaps, within such an experience lies part of the reason for the
declining participation rates and membership struggles that the game
faces at present both here and abroad. Numbers of rounds played
are down, traditional middle-tier and regional clubs in Australia are
struggling for members, and in the US for the first time the number of
courses that went out of business last year outnumbered the number
of courses opening for play.
apparent with each passing year.
What should be immediately apparent, too, and without much need
for consultation among governing bodies or the executive council, is
that division, elitism and snobbery are unlikely to be the motivating
qualities that will ultimately resurrect golf’s popularity.
Grant Dodd has been a member of the Australasian PGA Tour since 1993
and played in the 1997 and 1998 British Opens.