Women pay the same, but aren't allowed Saturday Morning Tee Times....

[Capella]

We have a men's only competition on Wednesday afternoons and a ladies' only one on Thursday afternoons, both of which block the tee for about two hours (longer for the men's one, because they tend to have more players and sometimes tee off from the 1st and the 10th). Similar for the seniors on Friday mornings (about one hour reserved for the senior ladies and another one for the senior men, longer when they need it). Other than that, I think trying to ban women (or any other group, for that matter) from the course, especially on a weekend day, would just not work here. All other competitions are mixed. Our club has about a 40% female membership.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Our club has about a 40% female membership.

I would be interested to know the mix for clubs over here but I doubt any, other than all ladies clubs, would have a 40% female membership. Very impressive. Does anything in particular happen over in Germany that encourages women to play or are you just in a golfing hotspot?

 

[Crazyface]

At our club, the course is closed to all members not playing in a medal on the competition day. Be that male or female. Ladies can play their medal in the same period but generally prefer to play with other ladies in the medal (understandably so), so the club has arranged specific times (as agreed with the ladies) for their tee times on the medal day. It was seen as the best compromise so as not to be discriminatory and satisfied all parties.
Otherwise, we no longer have a Lady members category. You are either just an Ordinary or Associate member with the same playing rights irrespective of gender.

Brilliant set up !!!! Can the ladies play in the same group as men too?

 

[Deleted member 21258]

I would be interested to know the mix for clubs over here but I doubt any, other than all ladies clubs, would have a 40% female membership. Very impressive. Does anything in particular happen over in Germany that encourages women to play or are you just in a golfing hotspot?

That is really amazing 40%(capellas course) , we are nowhere near it probably 10-15% on average depending on kind of club/course at a guess.

 

[Capella]

I would be interested to know the mix for clubs over here but I doubt any, other than all ladies clubs, would have a 40% female membership. Very impressive. Does anything in particular happen over in Germany that encourages women to play or are you just in a golfing hotspot?

Germany generally has a pretty high percentage of female players (35% is the official numer, I think), compared to other places in the world. And, other than for example in South Korea or maybe Sweden, this is not due to a particularily successful female golfer on tour (at least not that I am aware of). It is very commonplace for German couples to share their hobbies and spend most of their spare time together. So in very many cases when a man gets interested in golf, he brings his wife/girlfriend along and vice versa (while I get the impression that in Britain it is still very common and welcomed by both partners in many cases, to have separate worlds to escape to). Also, golf really started to develop here a lot later than in the UK, so there is no traditional notion of golf being mostly or exclusively a men's sport. The situation and the numbers are very similar in other neighbouring countries where golf developed somewhat similar, like for example Austria, Switherland and the Netherlands.

My club used to be very sport and competition oriented (is has dwindled away a bit with the majority of the founding members getting older and more focused on social golf) and for some reason the ladies team always ranked higher than the men's team in the German golf league system, with the ladies playing in the highest league for a few years, which made the club even more attractive for competitive lady golfers.

 

[patricks148]

I don't think the ladies at my club have it bad.

They have two comps every week Tues and Thurs all though the year, on those days tee blocked from 9 till 10.30 and 4, till 5 .30, only difference in winter the later ones isn't much use. Mens are only April till 1st week Oct. Ladies also have Stableford on the same sunday as the mens, just everyone books their own times.

The ladies also play the same course 12 months of the year. men 7 months if you are lucky with short winter course taking up at least 5 months most years.

Ladies can play any sat though the year, except when the dozen or so Mens Silver trophy's are on, but they are usually finished by Lunchtime so can still book times after that. They also have two ladies opens on Saturdays in the summer which take the whole day, so two Sat where men can't play.

The ladies section opted to keep it this way, which is no surprise as it suites most of them

 

[jim8flog]

Whilst we still have a ladies day it is only from 9.30 to 12. There are a lot of complaints by ladies against the ladies that they only open up the comp at 9.30 close the competition down effectively at 12-12-30 so ladies who play in the afternoon or early morning, afternoon or evening cannot play in the comp.

There are ladies who play mainly at the weekends so all comp days also have a ladies medal running concurrently and ladies can choose their tee time in the same way men can. If ladies are not 'catered for' in this way how are they expected to maintain their handicaps.

Clubs in this day and age must allow for the fact that the vast majority of ladies of working age now have jobs.

 

[Lazkir]

Ladies can play in the Saturday medals at our place. Played alongside a couple of them last year.
They were fine, no problems at all, swore like troopers and were generally a good laugh.

 

[Robster59]

Brilliant set up !!!! Can the ladies play in the same group as men too?

Yes but they prefer not to which is why there are specific slots put aside for groups of ladies to play together.

 

[patricks148]

Brilliant set up !!!! Can the ladies play in the same group as men too?

our lot don't even want men on the course behind them. at the moment they have a 30 min buffer after the last time. they have this so no one can book it. its a bit of a joke TBH, they wanted and hour but didn't get the votes on committee to allow that. In the evening slots this really rankles many working guys as on Tues and thurs they can't play till 6. and to make matters worse hardly any women let alone enough to fill the 1 and half hours they have so the course is empty those two nights

 

[Robster59]

After reading some of the comments over the last few pages, I think we're lucky at our club compared to some. Mind you that "luck" was down to a lot of work by some of our Board of Management and Handicap Committee at the time to ensure we met all our legal requirements whilst still trying to keep everyone happy.
As a result, we don't seem to really have a lot of the issues other clubs seem to be having.
There is still a Ladies Section who organise their own events, social functions,etc. and there is still a Lady Captain but it all seems to work quite well.

 

[lukeysafc100]

Lets be honest, I pay my fee's and I'm not allowed to play during ladies time slots? or seniors time slots? or reserved time slots? Should I complain?

Unfortunately at my club the "Men's" section is very much larger than the "Women's" section - so Men's comp's are set on either Saturday or Sunday. As the club will gain more revenue from this.
But if there's no competition on - any member is allowed to play at any time they wish.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Lets be honest, I pay my fee's and I'm not allowed to play during ladies time slots? or seniors time slots? or reserved time slots? Should I complain?

Unfortunately at my club the "Men's" section is very much larger than the "Women's" section - so Men's comp's are set on either Saturday or Sunday. As the club will gain more revenue from this.
But if there's no competition on - any member is allowed to play at any time they wish.

I am of a mind that various 'sections' in a golf club should not be able to reserve a tee to the exclusion of members not in that section or not wanting to join in with that section on the day. Members should be made aware that the 'duffers' section will be teeing off between Apm and Bpm, but the tee is not formally reserved. Members will however know it is not a great idea wanting to play in that period and will plan their golf around it. But circumstances might demand that if, say, I can ONLY play between Apm and Bpm, then I should be able to turn up; put my ball in the chute, and take my turn - even if that is in the middle of the 'duffers'. They are only really ever friendly and informal 'section' get-togethers - so there should be no problem an 'outsider' going off in their midst.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

I am of a mind that various 'sections' in a golf club should not be able to reserve a tee to the exclusion of members not in that section or not wanting to join in with that section on the day. Members should be made aware that the 'duffers' section will be teeing off between Apm and Bpm, but the tee is not formally reserved. Members will however know it is not a great idea wanting to play in that period and will plan their golf around it. But circumstances might demand that if, say, I can ONLY play between Apm and Bpm, then I should be able to turn up; put my ball in the chute, and take my turn - even if that is in the middle of the 'duffers'. They are only really ever friendly and informal 'section' get-togethers - so there should be no problem an 'outsider' going off in their midst.

Going on the posts on the thread, mine, Robsters and Lukes, I’d say the different section having reserved tees and members being aware works well, your example of “duffers” getting in the way of better players is shocking! They are probably nervous enough without an “outsider” being in their midst.

 

[jim8flog]

I am of a mind that various 'sections' in a golf club should not be able to reserve a tee to the exclusion of members not in that section or not wanting to join in with that section on the day. Members should be made aware that the 'duffers' section will be teeing off between Apm and Bpm, but the tee is not formally reserved. Members will however know it is not a great idea wanting to play in that period and will plan their golf around it. But circumstances might demand that if, say, I can ONLY play between Apm and Bpm, then I should be able to turn up; put my ball in the chute, and take my turn - even if that is in the middle of the 'duffers'. They are only really ever friendly and informal 'section' get-togethers - so there should be no problem an 'outsider' going off in their midst.

On our Seniors Monday Competition days we usually have over 100 competitors, on the non Seniors competition Mondays there are loads of unbooked tee slots. If you were running a club would you cater for the many or for the few?

 

[chellie]

You do realise that post equality legislation (at my club at least not sure it's the same everywhere?) that ladies do pay the same as men but the situation re access to the course at weekends remains unchanged yes?

It's a bugbear of mine at my own club tbh, hopefully in time things will improve. There is a difference between equality and equity that seems to have been missed by (some, mine included) golf clubs.

During summer we can play on Saturdays after the men's competitions and whenever we want on Sundays so I don't think it's a problem. Could think of nothing worse than having to go out during the men's competition times as they are so slow.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Aside from competitions where the tees are effectively booked as we have drawn slots, we don't have booked times and so men and women are free to play whenever. Usually the ladies will either tag their competition onto the back of a mens event or book it from 9.30 on a Saturday or Sunday (so usually closed for about an hour tops). Aside from that rock up and play.

We do have roll up groups that go out at set times, but they do not have the tee booked per se although members usually know when these go out and so will look to play in front or turn up that bit later. The ladies do still have the first tee booked on a Tuesday (and usually run a competition most weeks) but again, it doesn't take much to go out ahead of them. Not having booked times means in theory we should never run into the sort of issues in the OP as both genders are free to come and go at their leisure

 

[chellie]

our lot don't even want men on the course behind them. at the moment they have a 30 min buffer after the last time. they have this so no one can book it. its a bit of a joke TBH, they wanted and hour but didn't get the votes on committee to allow that. In the evening slots this really rankles many working guys as on Tues and thurs they can't play till 6. and to make matters worse hardly any women let alone enough to fill the 1 and half hours they have so the course is empty those two nights

There's a 30 minute buffer after our competitions which is the same as the men get after there times. Do the men not have a buffer at Nairn?

 

[huds1475]

Seniors, most of whom are retired, pay less membership than me.

They can play any day they want. I can't, as I work 5 days a week.

Is this inequality or discrimination?

Stupid debate as everyone's circumstances / requirements are different.

If you feel your golf membership doesn't give you what you want, find a club where the arrangements best suit your needs.

 

[patricks148]

Nope, on a Sat though the season we want as many people to play as possible. all our comps are 3 balls and straight after its often visitors out.

i don't understand the logic of blocking off times to stop people playing behind you???