Catriona Matthew story ‘reinforces golf’s negative image’

The revelation that the daughter of Europe’s Solheim Cup captain, Catriona Matthew, had to leave a golf club bar because her shorts were unhemmed has led to The Telegraph publishing an editorial arguing that snooty attitudes in golf clubs threatens the current boom in demand for the game.

Matthew posted on social media that her daughter, who is a junior member of a Scottish golf club, was buying a drink to take outside after finishing her round, when she was spoken to.

In the replies several people revealed they have had similar experiences, ranging from a person being asked to leave the clubhouse for carrying an infant who was wearing denim dungarees to a five-month pregnant woman being ordered to tuck in her shirt.

This led The Telegraph’s golf correspondent, James Corrigan, to pen a thought-provoking piece arguing that there is much to be positive about regarding the game at the moment – but also much to be concerned about.

‘The number of rounds played in England this June was up 70 per cent year-on-year; consider also that golf club memberships have shot up by an average of around 10 per cent and, in some cases, even more,’ he wrote.

‘Glencruitten Golf Club have 200-plus new members, more than double the 170 they had before the lockdown. Hear the Golf Foundation announce an 11 per cent increase in junior membership in the network of 437 clubs that have been awarded accredited status as a fun and family friendly junior facility.

‘These are incredible numbers and they are backed up by the youngsters playing at the elite end. In conversation with Sir Nick Faldo recently, he was crooning about his Faldo Junior Series, an initiative that was established in 1996 as a global amateur series for boys and girls aged from 12 to 21. “Our entry numbers are off the charts,” Faldo said. At eight events in the UK, the series boasted 1,199 participants compared to 587 in 2019. Of these, 197 were girls compared to 31 last year.

‘Golf is booming and with so many accessible schemes and with the energy, drive and funding of the golf unions and the R&A, it must be wondered what could possibly go wrong.’

Corrigan adds that there is something that can go wrong.

‘Snooty golf clubs. They were responsible for the last great missed chance at the end of the last century, when a proliferation of courses opened as participation shot through the clubhouse roofs. All too soon the enthusiastic departed, the new layouts shut and survey after survey pointed to one of the main culprits being the stuffy attitude and arcane rules. Not again, please.

‘A sizeable proportion of the general population still believe those clubhouses to be archaic bastions of retired middle management, where jeans are not permitted, collars compulsory and ties must be worn after 7pm.

‘Believe it, the “pompous blazer brigade” is still out there and if their ghastly influence is not eradicated immediately, they could inflict one final, debilitating wound on a sport they laughably claim to be protecting.

‘Yes, eventually, those ludicrous dinosaurs will die off and their ridiculous old customs will be blessedly extinct, leaving the sport to make inroads into modern reality. But, by then, golf might have forsaken a huge opportunity and turned away the masses rather than luring them in forever.’