‘Golf club traditions threaten gender equality’

One of the UK’s most eminent university professors, and a president of a golf club, has said that some of the traditions golf clubs have are “out of touch, a complete nonsense and a turn off to diversity and gender equality”.

Sir Tim Wilson, a professor at Plymouth University and a government business adviser, is also the chair of trustees and president of Letchworth Golf Club in Hertfordshire. He was speaking to scores of golf club managers at the Golf Club Management Association’s national conference at the Hinckley Island Hotel in Leicestershire.

He revealed that when he was captain of the club in 2000 he wanted to remove the policy that prevented women from being allowed to use the club’s bar. However, he was met with opposition from members who used the argument that the ban was traditional and should therefore remain.

“The traditions some golf club members hang onto are often out of touch, a complete nonsense and a turn off to diversity and gender equality,” he said.

“These members didn’t realise the world was moving on and it was time for them to change. In the end, the ‘men’s only bar’ came down on my first day in office.

“That mindset about the importance of traditions wasn’t just off-putting for women, but for younger people and the majority of members.”

Sir Tim added that golf clubs that don’t strategically plan ahead may not be around in 15 years’ time.

“Most clubs’ average age of membership is 55 to 75,” he said. “If we didn’t have electric trolleys we would lose 30 percent of our membership!

“Where will those clubs be in 15 years? Sitting back and doing nothing could mean that they will die – they need to profile their members and create a mission for the club moving forward. And that plan must not be distracted by short-term minority interests, such as captains during their one year in office.”

Julian Small

Also speaking at the conference was Julian Small, chief executive of Wentworth Club, who appeared to agree with much of what Sir Tim said.

“As managers, we must think logically when those around us are thinking emotionally,” he said.

“The success of Wentworth, which has 900 members under the age of 19 and a thriving ladies’ section, is because we embrace change and listen to our customer base – we are not immune to the economic downturn.

“We’ve put families at the centre of our vision so, for example, we listen to our junior committee and our dress code is constantly evolving because golf fashion and our members’ attitudes are constantly evolving. We also invest in training our staff.

“That’s why events such as Christmas and Father’s Day meals are so popular and why Wentworth is about fun, not just playing golf.”

Small revealed that he has 260 permanent staff at the club, and another 200 casual staff, and recruits from all over the world. “We’ve just hired four Portuguese guys who are excellent at hospitality, because the Portuguese golf market is very tough at the moment,” he said.

He also stated that just four percent of rounds of golf at Wentworth are played by visitors, despite it being a proprietary club.

And he advised club managers to tap into the skill-base of their members. “In 2010 I had a bad year in which I attended about 40 funerals of members,” he said. “And it never ceased to amaze me how much I learnt about how skilful or knowledgeable they were on issues that could have helped the club – when they were dead.”

He added that certain topical issues may never be solved: “I have a book in my office detailing the minutes of a meeting from 1926,” he said. “The two biggest issues then were dress codes and slow play – nothing has changed!”

Professional speaker Philip Hesketh also agreed that golf clubs need to evolve, sometimes rapidly, if they are to grow or even just survive.

He told delegates that just 19 percent of the biggest 100 companies in the world in 1912 were still in the top 100 83 years later, that is the course of one lifetime. In fact, he said more from that 100 had actually gone bust.

“There’s a saying that ‘if you always do what you’ve always done then you’ll always get what you’ve always got,” he said.

“But that’s not true, things move on so you’ll actually get something worse. That’s why dominant companies lose their market share after a while, and it’s the same principle with golf clubs.

“Clubs need to adapt and give their customers what they want. They need to make those customers feel important, loved and to belong.”

Roger Brown

Finally, Roger Brown, the managing director of Fairway Credit, which provides golf clubs with the ability to let their members pay by direct debit rather than in one lump sum, warned that new legislation will make it tougher for clubs to do this themselves.

“The regulation of lending is passing from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Conduct Authority [FCA], which is far tougher,” he said.

“The new head of the FCA said he would shoot first and ask questions later. That where they suspected wrongdoing they would ask a business to cease that activity until it could be proven to comply with the rules. Clubs should ask what this might mean for their businesses’ ability to trade.

“And the FCA, which can issue personal and business fines, as well as even jail directors for non-compliance, has issued a 600 page document outlining its new rules.

“It’s costing us £2 million just to comply with these new rules, but it means our customers effectively get a free insurance policy if they use us as the lender rather than doing it in-house.”