golfweloveit

I have a new campaign, and this is to encourage fathers to bring their daughters, not just their sons, to golf.

Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan was on breakfast television this morning and in passing talked about his own love of golf. Interviewer Lorraine Kelly, who had apparently seen him play in the Dunhill Links at St Andrews, mentioned his two daughters and Dornan’s mind connected the two.

“I’ve bought Dulcia (one of his two daughters) a cut down set of clubs but she’s still using them to beat flowers with. I like the idea of taking the family with me on golf trips and do plan to get them into golf”.

Laudable. This puts to shame a man I boldly confronted in a London park once, granted it was about cricket. He was obviously cricket mad and had his two sons batting and bowling. His daughter was complaining that she wanted a go but he said no. “Girls just field Grace”. It wasn’t my business but I couldn’t turn a blind eye to this so I did say “excuse me, why did you name your daughter after England’s greatest ever cricketer if you won’t let her play?”. He blushed bright scarlet and I quickly made my retreat hearing the young girl say “yessss!” And laughing loudly.

Dads, please give your daughters the same chance as your sons.

Very interesting interview with Mark Lichtenhein of the Ladies European Tour by Lewine Mair this week.

It was indeed surprising that the genuine collective offer of help from the European Tour, the LPGA and the Royal and Ancient wasn’t snapped up last year when the tour was depleted to 15 tournaments.

But apparently the offer hasn’t been totally rejected, they didn’t want to rush into things. I cannot at all see how linking up with the LPGA in America would be in the best interests of the game. It would subordinate the Ladies European Tour to a satellite of the main Tour and make the Ladies game one product worldwide. the Solheim Cup would become a non event.

Mark Leichtenhein says the tour is poised to have two new tournaments and is aiming for 20 events this year. the tour begins this week with the co-sanctioned Victoria Open. THey hope for more support from the men’s European Tour like this. Apparently more support from the Royal and Ancient, who already run the Ladies Golf Union and give a grant to the LET is the preferred opion. But independence would be better. Surely there are sponsors out there who would help.

I recently spoke to amgirl who used to play on the tour but who now does other work because she “has to make a living” and she wouldnt be able to make ends meet if she still played professionally. She said that the tour were in “complete denial” about their situation and they were on the verge of going bust but just didnt want to look for help. From the horse’s mouth, that said it all.

So after hearing that golf has been voted the most boring sport on television, I found some serious research about barriers to participation. Two sets of focus groups were set out to uncover what women and juniors really think as these are the groups which have the most potential for growth in the game.

Women first. This is what they said.

Let’s put this in bold letters.

IT IS TOO MALE DOMINATED which can be INTIMIDATING and UNWELCOMING to women as men can resent their presence.

There is very little female golf on TV, so there is no reference, no one to look up to.

GOLF CLUBS ARE OFTEN ELITIST AND POMPOUS. I would certainly agree that there is a hierarchy of clubs – I was once given a list of the clubs which I was allowed to visit and the message was clear that they were for my sort of people and other clubs, which I was not allowed to visit were not for the likes of me. (Hence I sold my golf books, previous post. The wooden Rolls of Honour on club walls sometimes going back a couple of centuries might make the winners of club championships feel proud but they can make others feel oppressed. I would also add to this the uniforms – the ubiquitous club blazers which the wearer may feel is “smart” and may remind him of his happy days at public school, but these garments are seriously intimidating to look at. It is power dressing, meant to command authority but has the opposite effect of driving new people away.

YOU MUST BELONG TO A CLUB Now this is something which England Golf could be leading the way on – no club membership which can be traced then no Handicap Certificate. It’s a network which creates a closed shop to new people coming into the game.

COST AND COMMITMENT it is a huge investment of time and money to take up this Isport. One of the recommendations of the report was to make it easier for new golfers to rent clubs donated from old sets members no longer use when they trade up to new equipment. I am soon to buy some custom fitted clubs and have two old ladies sets which I would gladly pass on if it meant a new person would come into the game.

Here’s what some lapsed golfers said:

“What I didn’t like about it was the pretentiousness of it and the rules. I don’t like being told this is how you should behave”

“At my gym you have equal rights. It doesn’t give you the right to be rude to people”

“The members didn’t want new people. They thought it’s going to be busier. They’re going  to take my tee time”.

And the Under 18 focus groups had equally interesting things to say:

“It’s a bit boring for young people. All the older men say “shush, be quiet” when you are on the course. But teenage girls aren’t quiet. They want to talk and laugh – it’s like a lot of people are saying they don’t want you there”.

“It’s all men and no women. If we could have someone to look up to then you would become interested”.

And this was the most damning:

“If I was going to take up golf I wouldn’t know where to start. Where to go, what to buy. I wouldn’t have a clue how to get into it”.

So the conclusions of these reports were that shorter courses, affordable rentals and affordable flexible club membership were factors which needed to be looked into but 8 out of the 12 factors were psychological. It was about being welcomed, feeling that people were friendly and accessible, that families were encouraged to play together, that juniors were not going to get a hard time and it was more female friendly. There was one interesting suggestion from the junior group – that there needs to be more on course refreshment facilities – every six holes would be a good idea.

So this gives a fairly accurate picture of peoples impressions – and misconceptions – about what golf is like. Mostly that it is a single sex sport.

It is painting a picture that people outside the sport think that it is a selfish person’s game, that you have to be the right sort to be a member and people can hurt you with their opinions. That isn’t for most of us, which is why they are staying away. It seems to me that it is not golf that is wrong, it is golf clubs and their members and management.

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It’s called the 9-9. A new type of Pro Am started at the Phoenix Open this week which gives the pros a chance to break up a long 6 hour round before competition and share their pro am commitment with another player. Professionals can either play the full 18 holes with their partners or elect to play just 9 holes and be replaced by a second player on the back nine. It proved yesterday to be popular with the players and their partners who got the chance to play with two professionals. This will be rolled out at a handful of events – Houston, Byron Nelson, St Jude, John Dere, Canadian Open, Barbasol. PGA Tour have said that pro aims are financially very important and it will be up to individual tournament sponsors if they choose the new format.