[Dale_McCallon]

I grew up a little north of Mike H; but we share the same type of stories and playing partners.  It's basic golf with good people and it's probably even lower frill than you think it might be. And we are all fine with that.  At a club where the only requirement is the check doesn't bounce, there are bound to be some jerks.  But you will find the same type jerk at a "culture" rich club as well.


Honestly I think the most important issue from this topic is what is a Stewart sandwich?

[Thomas Dai]

Take care of the course, play fast and be polite, particularly to staff. 
That takes care of 98% of what I care about.

Politeness and courtesy, especially towards the staff, is a very good measure of a Club as is how a Club reacts should a member or guest or visitor behave inappropriately.
There’s a somewhat satirical sign I’ve seen that says something like “If you aren’t prepared to play fast and repair  your divots and pitch-marks do not proceed any further.” Be nice/amusing to see such as sign at the entrance gates to all Clubs, especially if the Club chucked-out any who don’t comply.
Atb

[Mike Hendren]

Hillbilly Dale, nice to hear from you.  Regarding Stewart Sandwiches:




Hillbilly Dale, good to hear from you.  Regarding Stewart Sandwiches:



Been a while since we heard from you but then again if my two senators were Mitch McConnel and Rand Paul, I'd be laying low too.


Bogey

[Steve Lang]

Culture Club, Dress Codes and Music... distract from the golf experience

[Terry Lavin]

I’ve been a member at a number of private golf clubs over the past three decades. Each club had a different culture. I found very little difficulty in adapting to the differences. Some of my guests had to be reminded or taken to the pro shop to look more in conformance, but overall it has been easy.


To me the biggest changes have happened at a couple clubs where they went from family clubs to golf clubs only. These changes happened gradually and some members felt slighted and they quit. Others were pissed and kept barking. The rest went with the flow.


But you can’t really fight a changing demographic or a changing culture. Embrace it and prosper. Fight it and watch the club wither.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I have belonged to some wonderful golf clubs, which are very different in ethos than most country clubs. At one club the only rule was "don't be an a..hole." Another was owned by an individual who ran the club and set the rules. Wear a hat in the clubhouse buy drinks for everyone. One of our members berated and server. He promptly got his checkbook out and refunded his club deposit. It was individual memberships only, so my wife had to pay a green fee. Everybody knew each other and a game was easy top come by. I was a member for 16 years and I moved and miss it like crazy. I belong to a club now that has a great membership. They respect the game, care for the course, and know how to enjoy each other's company.

[Ira Fishman]

We have been members of our club for approximately 15 years. I know less than 15 members by name. My life is not less fulfilled.


Ira

[jeffwarne]

Isn't the point here that we all like a "great golf culture"?
It's just that tehre should and can be many definitions of that.

Reading the repies, it would seem many would suggest a club culture should be one that conforms to their views...(example-whether or not music is acceptable, enjoyable or even tolerated)


Wouldn't it be incredibly boring if EVERY golf COURSE was uniform, like hard court tennis, rather than enjoying a diversity of landscape,distances,width, external and internal views, grass types and condtions, and of course architecture.


Why can't club cultures be equally diverse?
As Tom says, if you're worried about MY footwear, or where I wear MY hat(I personally take mine off indoors), you've got too much time on your hands.


The Golden rule of "do unto others as you'd like done to you", or Tom's version of St. Patrick's culture is one of many good models, but can be harder to implement and manage.
The tricky part of Tom's vision is when one's vision of "comfort"and culture infringes upon anothers....(which explains my grey hairs)

[Rob Marshall]

Jeff, out of curiosity does your club allow music on the course?

[jeffwarne]

Jeff, out of curiosity does your club allow music on the course?

Yes-not really an issue, but tolerance(or lack of) is a reasonably reliable barometer.

[Rob Marshall]

Basically the same with us. I don’t like it but I play early on weekends and it’s a non issue then. Thursday afternoons, “members day” formerly known as men’s day, it gets a little more play. I’m learning to live with it....I don’t get it but it’s everyone’s course. We’re all paying the bills.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Being a member and/or having been a member of 8 clubs as I have moved around, it strikes me that great clubs have a wide range of cultures...and that is exactly as it should be...different strokes for different folks.  People look for very different things in clubs (and sometimes individuals and families look for different things from different clubs they belong to), and IMO that is as it should be.  I know folks who belong to both an uptight, conservative club...and a raucous party club and look for different things from each.


Certainly the atmospheres at places like The Dunes (MI), Oakmont (PA), Blind Brook (NY), and the small town clubs discussed in earlier posts are all different from one another.  Some people love the accommodations at Sand Hills and others want "Discovery Land".   But I strongly disagree with any concept that there is one set of rules for all clubs.  There should be one set of rules for EACH club...but those rules should reflect the values of each club's members.  And yes, we all will have opinions about what "rules' and "atmosphere" and "values" ww agree with (and disagree with), but that does not mean that we all will or should agree with each other's thoughts/values etc.


The above said, I think the one thing that all great clubs have is a strong "unity of purpose" among its members...that is the membership pretty much have the same set of values and views on this subject.  Without that, I think the membership's views on priorities will eventually cause strong fissures.  I think that is why most great clubs have or had a strong dictator...but that does NOT necessarily mean that all clubs w strong dictators are strong clubs!!  There are good and bad dictators!   

[JLahrman]

Its a culture flag rather than a killer, play music, wear hats in the clubhouse, do whatever you want on the theory that the rights of the individual should always usurp those of the rest..........or not in my world.

Would be interesting to take the people who support playing music and wearing hats in the clubhouse vs. those who don't, and crosstab them out as mask-wearers vs. non-mask-wearers.

[Dunlop_White]

To me, the golf clubs with the most alluring cultures are those that exhibit a keen sense of pride and appreciation for their traditions, history and architectural heritage. Just look at America’s most prestigious venues for all the cues. Most are bastions of tradition and history.  Caretakers of countless clubs showcase and covet their history and pedigree throughout the entire premises, usually producing an aura — of admiration and respect, where members and guests alike feel like they’re a part of something timeless and very special. Clubs often underestimate the power and influence of tradition and history as their most valuable, time-acquired assets.

See a brief checklist below of historical touch points — unique subtleties — that help honor tradition and heritage and help create a distinct sense of yore…..all culminating to help shape the culture of clubs. 

• Champion Boards - Many distinguished clubs around the world honor their tournament winners by permanently displaying their names (in golf leaf) on carefully designed honor boards in prominent locations of the clubhouse. It’s just another way of showcasing your club’s golf legacy. Make them a museum piece with a satin, low-gloss finish. Columns and moldings are optional.
• Golf Library: many golf clubs create a golf library as a resource to help educate their membership and celebrate the origins of the game. Herbert Warren Wind, Bernhard Darwin, etc. Just look at a club’s bookshelves, and you can ascertain almost immediately if they have a golf culture. Old Town’s collection is mounting.
• Entrance Sign: design a small wooden entrance sign in its simplest form, like Old Town, Myopia, Augusta, Seminole and others. Club entrances wear subtleties quite well.
• Wall of Fame: procure photo portraits in Rembrandt-Style, bust-only, 8 x 10” of all Club Champions, Professionals and All-Americans, who honed their skills on your fairways. It’s another way of honoring your accomplished golfers. Collages can be modeled after those displayed at Old Town, Royal Porthcrawl and Royal Liverpool.
• Golf Paintings: hire artists to paint renditions of famous holes that your architect designed as a means of celebrating his venerable masterworks. (see Michael Miller, Josh Smith, Josh Bills, Dave Baysden, Mike Cocking and others)
• Architectural Portrait: commission an artist to create a pencil portrait of your architect to promote a sense of pride and respect for his craft among the membership. Your architect should be a household name among the membership. Old Town hangs the only Perry Maxwell portrait that exists.
• Patio Expansions: golf’s most nostalgic clubhouses come equipped with large patios located in close proximity to play. This is a classic, old-school way of "integrating the clubhouse with the golf." Integration (vs. separation) is an important classic theme that Coore and Crenshaw have reinstated at throughout Old Town: See also our merged fairways, our joint tees and double-greens. Plus, the shared open space of the golf course for all to see.
• Terrace Awnings: are a key feature of many club patios, balconies and terraces around the country, especially in the northeast. I’m partial to the striped ones at Maidstone and Winged Foot, again bringing clubhouse activities closer to the golf.
• Architectural Branding Accents: We’re seeing more and more old clubs invest in subtle decorative accents that showcase their brand within the clubhouse architecture. These decorative pieces are not simple replicas of their club logo, but instead they're "artistic representations” of the logo.  Baltusrol hangs a wrought iron “ B” on their chimney gate and a limestone “B” over an entrance. Pine Valley hangs a metal-crafted evergreen tree on the exterior wall of the golf shop.
• Wooden Locker Room Benches:  replace the modern carpet-seated, commercial benches with home-made wooden benches and add spike marks for character. See Oakmont.
• Club Flag: install a large flagpole somewhere on the premises — in the entrance circle or on the golf course for all to see.
• Historic Architectural Maps: many classics hang artistic architectural routing maps of their golf course. Keith Cutten has created a vintage iteration for Old Town that hangs in the Grill, like the ones at National Golf Links, PV, etc.
• Architectural Drawings:  Bill Coore's hand drawing of Hole 17 has also been outfitted with the same vintage border motif as old architectural maps.
• Walnut Tables: use tree removal as a means to create beautiful walnut tables, even wooden picture frames, like Inverness. Builds appreciation for tree management.
• Memorializing Cultural Landmarks: For example, the shelters located on holes 4 and 9 at Old Town have been preserved as reminders of our cultural background, when the property served as a horse farm for the Reynolds estate. We have also added antique brass plates on each structure to indicate its historical origins.
• Park Benches: replace commercial Par Aide benches with Kingsley Bate teak benches in the Hyde Park model, like those on most every tee box at Pine Valley. All walkers need a breather every once in a while to soak in the exposed cross-course vistas and the surrounding nature.
• Signature Dishes: are another source on membership pride —  known and remembered by all. Turtle soup, Bill burgers or our Brunswick stew.
• Club History Book: Many clubs have taken their history to another level by publishing densely illustrative club history books in celebration of anniversaries and other meaningful milestones. Sporting a bounty of vintage photographs, they have recently released coffee-table-style epics chronicling their inception and evolution.
• Architectural Clocks: outdoor clocks are a centerpiece at seminal golf clubs across the world. In America, clubs have unfortunately adopted the pricy Rolex towers, but many of the classics, especially in Great Britain, integrate distinctive clocks into their clubhouse architecture. Ben Crenshaw is partial to the outdoor railing clock (The Country Club at Brookline, Swinley Forest, Hunstanton, Sommerfield), because it has long served as a symbol of his captaincy and Ryder Cup victory. See every site in the British Isles for samples of this pastime.
• Historic Bronze Markers and Plaques: linking golfers to historical occurrences around them. The double-green is deserving of a bronze plaque sharing the story behind it and so is the 18th hole, where Palmer birdied to win the ACC Championship. Look to Cypress Point, Augusta and Merion, Ekwonak, and Aronomink, etc. as examples.
• Dedicate Roads and Rooms for the Architect: For instance, we designed a small wooden Perry Maxwell Road Sign and then dedicated our Maintenance Road as Perry Maxwell Lane with the City of Winston-Salem in honor of Perry Maxwell.
• Honorary Memberships: extend Honorary memberships to the golfers with strong ties to your club, who have also distinguished themselves in the golf profession. Then dedicate lockers in their name within the membership.
• Supporting and Growing the Game: it’s incumbent on abled clubs to make it a tradition to give back to the game, whether its supporting amateur golf or junior golf, like Old Town and Roaring Gap or professional golf like other clubs. If you can coordinate access for The First Tee or host AJGA events, CGA events, USGA events or permit local High School golf practices and matches, you are doing your part to promote the game.
• And Everything Else Tangible: scorecards, bag tags, tee markers, golf course accessories, etc. It all makes a statement about your golf culture. Nothing glitzy should cut the eye. You don't won’t to be a club — steeped in tradition — that does not look and feel like one. Golf custodians find virtue with amenities reduced to their simplest form. Big name courses use the smallest, simplest stuff.  Understated amenities, which are functionally simplistic, look much more attractive when kept at a minimum.
• And Everything Else Intangible: in an alluring golf culture, the following buzzwords come to life and have real meaning: minimal, natural, quirky, firm-and-fast, interesting and varied; and the following themes of informal shapes, free-flowing lines, minimal turf types and cutting heights, native colors and textures, etc.
  
  

So it shouldn’t be a big surprise that a club’s culture and its character extend to ALL that can be seen, felt and encountered during the golf experience, both inside and outside the clubhouse.  It’s much more than your practices, like dress codes or range divot configurations. Instead, your culture is the sum total of EVERYTHING.

And make no mistake, there is an economic component to tradition and history. Golfers have always demonstrated such a profound admiration and respect for distinctive old-fashioned golf cultures. Tradition and history attract!  They produce new members, National members, membership caps, waiting lists, increased initiation fees, member pride, prestige….and brand identity!

Importantly, however, your governance structure is the engine which drives all this stuff.  A key ingredient, that serves as the linchpin among many alluring golf cultures — is the dedicated stewardship, the long-standing golf chairman, the golf course custodian, or as MacKenzie so often put it, the benevolent autocrat -- who is resolute to preserve the Club’s culture/traditions and is judicious to implement any change, but for compelling circumstances — which is a difficult balancing act today — given the younger generation's appetite for all that’s fun, like of six-somes, cross-country golf, music or even Finn cycles.  Governance structures around the country which are hampered by large committees, term limits and rotating chairs usually cannot maintain such a steadfast vision or balance with any continuity or consistency  And Long Range Master Plans often struggle to fill the gap. So your governance model is perhaps the most important factor in helping establish and shape a golf culture, IMO.

Hello Ted Sturges, Long time! Sorry I carried on here. Great subject.  Sadly I sense this model may be losing favor. There needs to be a voice somewhere weighing in, advocating and offering justification for the long-standing golf custodian, just like we all did with the tree management movement 25-years ago. For golf’s sake, the virtues of this old governance model deserve some over-due support.
[/size]

[Ted Sturges]

God bless you Dunlop!

[Tim Martin]

Dunlop White-I wish you would post more often!!!!

[Jeff Spittel]

I prefer to attribute a club's culture to the folks that spend the most time there. In my experience, there are still way too many memberships who take themselves (and their increasingly archaic rules) far too seriously.



   

[JMEvensky]

Dunlop White-I wish you would post more often!!!!

+1--DW's comments are always worth reading.

[Cal Seifert]

Dunlop White-I wish you would post more often!!!!

+1--DW's comments are always worth reading.

Fantastic. His post should be pinned to the ‘In my Opinion’ section.

[Michael Wolf]

Great to see you posting Dunlop


Another honor board idea which I saw a couple of times in Japan was a list of everyone who's shot their age at their golf course. Seemed like a nice aspirational idea. FWIW -the board at Tokyo Golf has one (1!) name on it for shooting his age. When I asked my host about it he mentioned that a 2nd person had just done it the week before but his name hadn't been added to the board yet. So now 2 in 100 years!


My $.02 is similar to many earlier posts - the rules should fit the culture, not vice versa. I love the coat and tie lunches and dogs on the courses at UK clubs. But I also enjoy listening to music riding around Kapalua on a cart drinking lava flows. There is a time and place for both and everything in between. It's one of the many reasons golf beats the heck out of tennis.


Michael

[Bernie Bell]

Trappings are not golf.  They're adornments.

[Sean_A]

I enjoy any club culture from beer swilling porta cabin no history to spending an hour reading the hallways. What matters most is the golf course. All the history and tradition mean very little if I don't want to play the course.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

I love the coat and tie lunches and dogs on the courses at UK clubs.

Um, assuming this is widely to case in the UK wouldn't be correct. Some places yes, and they get publicised for it. The vast majority, no.
atb

[Kyle Harris]

There is only one rule about club culture and it is very much in line with Patrick Mucci's old standard:
Clubs that have to publish their dress code just strike me as wrong right off the bat.  It seems like it would be pretty rare for a visitor to Winged Foot or Crooked Stick not to understand the expectations, but if they didn't, they should not be met with hostility.  I suppose a club has to deal with the members' kids and that could be a problem, but again, the problem would best be handled by addressing the member or parent afterward.  The people sitting at another table who are offended by my choice of footwear, should really find better things to occupy their time.

This was rather edifying because my long memory remembers a time when I got absolutely pilloried on this board (not to mention some rather more "to-the-point" direct messages) for making a similar point 12 years ago.

[Kyle Harris]

I’ve come around on music out on the golf course provided that it’s played at reasonable volume levels. Is it really a culture killer?

Its a culture flag rather than a killer, play music, wear hats in the clubhouse, do whatever you want on the theory that the rights of the individual should always usurp those of the rest..........or not in my world.

Which of your personal rights are infringed upon by my wearing a hat in the clubhouse?

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()