Have golf club members forgotten how to behave?

Are golf clubs becoming more hostile environments? That might sound like a slight overreach, but clubs being a difficult place to navigate is something I’ve increasingly noticed.

There seems to be more frustration, more complaints and, perhaps most significantly, more willingness to take those complaints further.

Golfers have always fallen out. Anyone who has spent enough time around a golf club will have witnessed an argument or dispute about slow play, someone not being let through, a rules dispute or a disagreement over a competition.

None of that is new.

What is new is the surge in disciplinary and misconduct enquiries clubs across Britain are facing. The National Golf Clubs’ Advisory Association, an organisation which provides legal advice to clubs, says it handles more than 1,600 queries each year.

A recent report revealed the requests for legal advice involved cases ranging from etiquette breaches and pace-of-play frustrations to more serious incidents involving verbal and physical aggression.

The NGCAA also highlighted a noticeable rise in inappropriate conduct taking place on WhatsApp groups and social media platforms.

That is quite the finding and begs the question as to whether golf clubs have a deeper-rooted disciplinary problem. When a legal body is telling you there’s a problem, that’s something we should pay attention to.

Since the pandemic in 2020 in particular, it feels we have been talking extensively about a decline in golfing etiquette. Fall-outs that are stemming from slips in standards at golf clubs.

It also feels as though the way disagreements are dealt with is now totally different.

Golf club membership misconduct: We are living in a complaints culture

I think there’s a wider issue at play here and that’s the way we complain about things. Anytime someone gets into any sort of difficulty, their first instinct is to complain.

Many moons ago, if you had a problem at your club, you might have had to write a letter or physically go and see the secretary to sort it out. That gave both sides an opportunity to calm the situation down.

Now you can fire off a message, post something on social media or put your complaint into a WhatsApp group within seconds. There’s a perception that if someone complains then that reciprocate can and will have to do something about it.

Stuff that was once reserved for pub talk is now going on social media as public discourse. It is then being shared and screenshotted to be sent around. There’s no privacy to these sort of conversations anymore.

It’s also fair to note the increased diversity in memberships now. People with different expectations and people with different standards are joining golf clubs and that can result in more discontent.

That doesn’t mean newer golfers are behaving badly. In many cases, they may simply not know what the expected etiquette is.

And that’s partly because we, as existing members, don’t teach this stuff anymore.

If someone arrives at a golf club without knowing the etiquette around pace of play, playing through or general behaviour, they can make mistakes on the course without even realising they’ve done anything wrong.

What do we expect if we don’t help and teach this sort of thing?

It feels as though golf clubs are just a little bit late to the party on all of this. Certainly elements of them are.

I think a bit of the blame comes down to a shift in social expectations and that has brought about a clash of culture.

Perhaps younger people, who are working at the clubs, who have now got the voice, feel they are compelled to complain. They’re allowed to complain in a way perhaps they haven’t been before.

It’s time golf clubs adjusted to the changing member and perhaps these misconduct cases will slow down.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST

NOW HAVE YOUR SAY

Have you noticed a spike in cases of misconduct by members at your golf club? What do you think is to blame for the rise in complaints? Let us know in the comments or by getting in touch with us on X!

• NOW READ: I get bored after 20 minutes of practising. That’s why I’ll never be good at golf
• NOW READ: How much is a membership at Wentworth?