How Equal?

FairwayDodger

FairwayDodger

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Does your golf club offer equal rights for men and women and, if so, how equal is it really?

Serious question, inspired by Louise's comment about women not playing Saturdays. I guess many of the guys here will not have thought too much about this but when I was looking for a club to join it was vitally important to me to go somewhere I'd have the same rights as a man joining. And paying the same fees, obviously.

The club I joined is pretty good but there are subtle inequities some of which, admittedly, might be simply due to the ladies section being smaller.

For example, there are more qualifying comps for men, and the men's monthly medal is on a Saturday while the ladies' is a Friday. Individual ladies are allowed to specify their medal day to be a Saturday and play alongside the men but that effectively means the ladies medal is played over two different days.

Various one-off things as well, each rather trivial but that combine to show the men are generally given priority.
 
At our place the Ladies have a better deal than us Blokes.
Anyone can book a teetime on any day at any time - except........

Tuesdays from 9.25 - 10am when the tee is reserved for the Ladies.

Many play outside these times but that slot on a tuesday is always pre-booked for the Ladies.
 
Must say I was a bit shocked reading Louise's post.

Our place there are no restrictions at all. Obviously there are separate competitions and some at different times but then there are a lot where everyone plays together.

Certainly no restrictions on people playing only on specified days.
 
At ours both ladies and gents play comps on Saturday, and the ladies play additional comps on Tuesday's aka Ladies Day :thup:
 
Imurg said:
At our place the Ladies have a better deal than us Blokes.
Anyone can book a teetime on any day at any time - except........

Tuesdays from 9.25 - 10am when the tee is reserved for the Ladies.

Many play outside these times but that slot on a tuesday is always pre-booked for the Ladies.
Click to expand...

So for 35 minutes a week you can't book a time? ;)

I'm thinking about subtle things that wouldn't be obvious to someone thinking about joining. So, for example, is your tee reserved for competitions and are there more comps for the guys? Or do the ladies really have the tee reserved more than the men?
 
Ladies have a morning (Tuesday) set aside and have the tee booked even though in theory we operate a roll up policy. They have booked competition tee times usually straight after the mens event and their own club matches which are midweek and weekends. If you're a 7 day member then no restrictions on sex to play weekends and the only barrier is the booked comp times in the morning. Miss those and turn up and go out
 
sona said:
Totally equal. No male member would dare to suggest otherwise
Click to expand...

Not that I'm doubting but that's exactly what any male at my club would say and, on paper, that's true.

In practice it's not quite like that - maybe for practical reasons, maybe not.

What I'm asking is for you guys to consider how your club works in practice, are there any anomalies? Or do you believe the ladies get the same from the club you do? Or if they get better, say so too.... :)
 
FairwayDodger said:
So for 35 minutes a week you can't book a time? ;)

I'm thinking about subtle things that wouldn't be obvious to someone thinking about joining. So, for example, is your tee reserved for competitions and are there more comps for the guys? Or do the ladies really have the tee reserved more than the men?
Click to expand...

Not a complaint - just an observation.

Tee will be reserved for any comp that is drawn - Blokes or Gals........

Similar number of comps/Matches although the Ladies section is tiny compared to the Mens.

So apart from Comps when the tee is reserved (similar for both) the Ladies have this 35 minute slot that we can't book - we don't have one so you lot get a better deal........but it really isn't worth getting excited about..!:ears:

All-in-all it's a very equal club.
As it should be. :cheers:
 
Tuesdays is Ladies day although men can play as the ladies section is relatively small, Wednesday is mens day but ladies can tee off before 10.30 and after 6 (not much good except in summer) Saturdays are Mens comp day ladies may be able to play in th evening (not sure) there is one exception Ladies Captains day is on a Saturday.In the club house ladies cant go in the mens room on fridays and men cant go in the ladies lounge on thursdays.
 
Male County Championships are nearly always at weekends
Womens County Championships are nearly always weekdays.
Very unfair to women who have jobs.
How would the men at your club welcome your course closed for a Ladies County Championship at wekends.
 
Doon frae Troon said:
Male County Championships are nearly always at weekends
Womens County Championships are nearly always weekdays.
Very unfair to women who have jobs.
How would the men at your club welcome your course closed for a Ladies County Championship at wekends.
Click to expand...

That's exactly the kind of thing I'm driving at. It would never happen and true enough all the MCLGA events are midweek. Not sure when the male equivalent are held though.
 
I think it's something clubs are addressing with the aid of equality laws and in some cases has led to quite a rise in fees for ladies. Some clubs seem to have addressed this issue by forming 2 separate clubs (male and female), others have equalised things and opened things up.

Some clubs have seemingly arcane rules for ladies, regarding access regarding both playing and to the clubhouse. On the other side of the coin, ladies opens tend to be cheaper than men's and some top courses can be played for comparably cheap rates. There also seems to be some disparity in dress rules where for example ladies can where shorts and men can't.
 
my club the ladies have completely equal rights they have just as many comps and play 2 men 2 ladies comp once a week also.
but in the club literally across the road they have no lady members. ladies can play if their husband is a member but not before 10 am I believe
 
Opens are an interesting example. Can't say if ladies opens are cheaper or not but what I do know is that many clubs that have men's opens don't have ladies ones. Often the ladies opens are greensomes or foursomes, which is rubbish.
 
Why can't the ladies play alongside the men ?
Is the handicap system so flawed that men and women playing off official handicaps would in some way have an advantage over one or the other ?
 
Seems to me that these differences simply reflect the different natures of the participants. Many Women, like Seniors, are more available during Weekdays and may even only be 5-Day members. It seems that an accommodation has been made wrt comps on Friday/Saturday and that is actually a benefit that Men don't have. At a previous club, There were Ladies Medals, LGU Medal Comps (think they were Friday/Saturday nomination and is a 'special') and comps that Men could enter was also available to Ladies - with an Equity Adjustment for the different Tees. So more comps available to Ladies - and there was a reservation for the Ladies for several hours one day a week - as there was for Seniors. So plenty of argument that this club favoured Ladies!

How many clubs have allowed Ladies to wear the 'no-tan-line' socks but prevented Men from doing so?

As far as I know, current club does not differentiate for Medals or Dress Standards between men and women - maybe apart from the LGU Medal. Anything that can be purchased in the Pro-shop can be used on the course. It's the midweek playing Seniors that get an 'advantage', from a comp point of view, as many of their days are qualifying comp ones.
 
Very interesting question.
In Oct.2010 at our AGM we were asked to change our playing categories to meet the requirements of the Equality Law and we now have only have two forms of playing membership,Full Playing and Restricted.This allowed any woman member to pay the same subs as the men and play on Saturdays(mens comp day)About a dozen women took full playing membership and play in time slots in the middle of the mens comp.This so far has not been a problem but may well cause problems in the summer comps when we have nearly 200 players in the mens comp.
How ever equality does not apply to male members on Tuesdays (Ladies comp day)No Full Playing male member
play before 1230 in summer or 1200 in winter.This means full playing ladies have 7 days access to the course but full playing males paying the same subs only have access to the course 6 1/2 days .Equality! I do not think so part of post
 
Last edited:
We have one Ordinary Member class that is for Gents & Ladies. No distinction in playing rights. There are obviously more men and asa result more Gents comps on a Saturday. Having said that though, there are Ladies Comps on sats as well. The traditional Ladie medal is still a Thursday, but the Alternative medal day is a Sunday if the evening slot on a Thursday doesn't suit.

Seems to have worked quite well over last 10yrs or so. My wife is a memeber and plays regularly with her friends either on a Thursday evening or Sunday.

Biggest gripe some of the men have is when the Ladies have the tee booked for certain comps on a Saturday morning from 07:30-11:30 seems to really get to some of the dinosaurs ;)
 
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