Golf’s reputation takes hammering

A story about a golf club wedding planner accidentally sending an email to the couple that were due to be married has gone viral.

After meeting the duo, Stoke Park Country Club, Spa and Hotel’s Michele Connelly sent an email to her manager stating that the she was ‘trying to put this wedding off as I don’t think they are the type of people we would want to have at Stoke Park.’ However, she copied in the couple – adult entertainer Pauline Bailey, 27, and Ministry of Defence engineer Paul Carty, 51 – by mistake.

They sent the email to a legal firm, which has pursued a discrimination claim on the basis of Mr Carty’s age and three facial piercings, rather than due to Ms Bailey’s work at Redlight Central TV, on their behalf. The couple also notified the press of the email.

Since being published, the story was the most read article on the BBC News website for more than 12 hours and has featured prominently on almost every other major British news website, and several major international news websites. It even attracted over 1,000 comments on the Mail Online’s site, far higher than a typical top story, and has led to the couple appearing on television, including on ITV’s Daybreak.

Reaction from people has been mixed. Tens of thousands have criticised the golf club over perceived snobbery. A comment on the Mail Online site that read ‘How unbelievably rude! And any venue, however posh, should be absolutely delighted to have someone willing to pay £10,000 during a recession. And who is this Michele woman to decide whether they are ‘her sort of people’? She will be very lucky not to be fired over this as lots of other people reading this will be put off going to such an unpleasant and snooty place’ received nearly 6,000 more clicks of support than disagreement, one of the highest the site has ever received.

However, some were more supportive. One Twitter user wrote: ‘It is a private club after all. Glad some places still have standards.’

Stacey Jeffries, who runs charity golf events, added: ‘This certainly isn’t my experience of Stoke Park. The staff are first class.’