Women's Club Championship on Weekend?

[ThePutterGirl]

Hi, I've been thinking about this and wanted to ask everyone.... 

 

My fiancé and I are relocating from NYC, which means more accessible golf and are in the process of joining a private club.  There are several great options in our area that fit our preferences around culture/traditions of the game, course design/conditions and proximity/accessibility.  

 

We both have single digit handicaps, played competitively as juniors/college and would both want to play in leagues, club events, etc. Looking at our shortlist, our favorite clubs have all men's events primarily on weekends and women's events mainly during the week.  For example:

• Men's club championship is on the weekend and the Women's club championship is during the week
• Men's league is a weekday evening and Ladies league is a weekday during the day.

We live in a state with seasonal golf and a short season. I, as a woman, would not be able to play golf during almost half the summer golf weekends when these men's events are taking place.  To participate in the lady equivalent of the men’s event I need to plan to be out of the office since the women’s events are held on weekdays during the day.  

Based on my experience growing up playing golf, and chatting with friends, we're in agreement this just "par for the course". However, it did get me thinking...Is this always the case?  Maybe this is regional? Function of places I've played at?  

 

Not my intention for this to read as a "rant", I've been playing golf my entire life (mainly at private clubs) and have literally never thought of or noticed this!  Just think it's interesting thinking about relative to other shifting social dynamics, golf, families, life etc.  

[jvincent]

At our club we have "championship weekend" and all the flights for both the men and women are held on the same days. We interleave flights/men's/women's groups.

 

Our men's league is Wednesdays and our women's league is Tuesdays. Both are run so that the retirees can go early and the working folk go later in the day.

[Bonneville85308]

At the club I am most familiar with in the mid-Atlantic states, Thursdays had always been designated as "ladies 18 hole and 9 hole league day." They actually used to block off the entire morning of tee times for women whether they used them or not (most of the league women teed off around 8 to 10 so you basically had 2 hours every Thursday from 10 to 12 in which no women played, yet no men were allowed to tee off. Fortunately, as the board of directors turned over, a new board eventually saw the idiocy in that policy. Now the women's league has 830 to 930 blocked off for them, and anyone male or female can tee off immediately before or after that. Still, the women who play in the Thursday morning leagues at that club are almost entirely either retired or homemakers, and it has less than half of the participants that it did 15-20 years ago.. I know of one woman who plays in it and owns her own business, so she can adjust her schedule to be free on Thursday mornings, but your typical corporate professional employee probably isn't going to be able to play in it regularly. There is enough time on the weekend tee sheet to have the womens league then, but I'm guessing the non-working women are happy with the way things are now (basically a small clique).

 

That club has a Wednesday night 9-hole twilight league that tees off around 5pm that men or women can now play in, but was men-only until maybe 5 years ago.

 

The women's club championship, women's member-member, and women's ryder cup-style tournaments have always been on the weekend. The women's member-guest is always a one-day event on a weekday and has a hard time getting more than 10 or so teams to play in it. Frankly I don't know why they don't put it on a weekend.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Bonneville85308

[goaliedad30]

At our club in Northern California, all of the major events are on weekends, and open to both male & female members (and flighted accordingly). There are separate member-guest weekends in July, one for the men, one for the women. Each of those basically take over the club Thu/Fri/Sat for their big event.

 

During the week, we have men's games midday on Weds & Fridays, and there are women's games that alternate weekly between Thursday and Saturday mornings.

 

I think if you shop around, you'll find clubs that will have a model much more suitable to your needs!

[tatertot]

Our club had weekly/champion events for both men and women on weekday nights.

[MountainKing]

Unfortunately golf in many ways is still stuck in the 1950's.  This is a perfect example, thinking women don't work.  

[ArtMBgolf]

The men's club champ is 1 or 2 weekends, and doesn't need to be all day.
You should be able to play on weekends.  
 
My observation is that ladies groups at courses have a very high
number/% of SR/retired ladies playing.    They are probably happy to 
play on a weekday.   There may not be enough younger/business 
ladies to field a decent weekend ladies tournament.      

[2bGood]

16 hours ago, MountainKing said:

Unfortunately golf in many ways is still stuck in the 1950's.  This is a perfect example, thinking women don't work.  

Intersting comment.

 

Our women's events traditionally used to be on the weekends, but the women's event committee found most of the women members preferred to play them weekdays. When they moved the events to Fridays participation went way up. 

 

Once and a while someone who does not know they history will complain and state that it some misogynistic policy (and we are stuck in the 1950's) or something - and then we let them know that the women can have their events anytime they like but here in 2021 the vast majority chose Friday. 

 

 I would not assume why the events are not on the weekends. At our club the membership tends to be at place in life then when they work (if they do)it is pretty flexible. Pre-Covid midweek golf was busier than weekends as people tended to travel on the weekend blocking the tee sheet. The women found they could not get enough players to have a decent weekend event. 

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by 2bGood

[Hawkeye77]

You've really never thought of this?  Every single club is the same? 

 

Your option once you join is to do what other members do - be active and see if you can be persuasive with other members to enact whatever changes you want to make.

 

Agree with many above, it's a function of what works for the membership, but the "women, weekday morning only" thing isn't IMO anywhere near what it was even 20 years ago and just can't comment on the "why" so I won't, since it is so situational.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Hawkeye77

[Abh159]

My club typically plays most of the women's events during the week (with the exception of the Women's Member Guest that is held on a weekend). However, a lot of the men's events start on Thursday or Friday and end on Saturday as well so the course can be open for everyone on Sundays.

 

I'd say women only account for 10% of the membership at my club, and of that 10% probably only half actually play in the tournaments. My guess is they don't want to shut the course down for a morning (or afternoon) on the weekend to accommodate that 5% and inconvenience the other 95%. Is that fair to the women members? No, definitely not. But that is how it's always been and it's no different at the majority of the other clubs in my region. 

[MountainKing]

On 6/19/2021 at 11:38 PM, 2bGood said:

Intersting comment.

 

Our women's events traditionally used to be on the weekends, but the women's event committee found most of the women members preferred to play them weekdays. When they moved the events to Fridays participation went way up. 

 

Once and a while someone who does not know they history will complain and state that it some misogynistic policy (and we are stuck in the 1950's) or something - and then we let them know that the women can have their events anytime they like but here in 2021 the vast majority chose Friday. 

 

 I would not assume why the events are not on the weekends. At our club the membership tends to be at place in life then when they work (if they do)it is pretty flexible. Pre-Covid midweek golf was busier than weekends as people tended to travel on the weekend blocking the tee sheet. The women found they could not get enough players to have a decent weekend event. 

 

 

Oh yeah - it's a total assumption, every club/course has to do what's best to fit their customer or membership base.  But it's not a stretch, we still have male only clubs and up until a few years back white male only.  Golf isn't exactly breaking barriers with some of this stuff, there's still a huge "get off my lawn" sort of attitude with a lot of guys who play the sport.  Hell, I get looks for having an untucked shirt and that's not even that big of a deal. People seem to struggle with things in the name of tradition. 

[Roody]

My wife and I are members at a private club, and if she were on this forum she'd be ready to write you a book about this. So at our club Tuesdays are "ladies day" and Wednesdays are "men's day". Ladies league night is also on Tuesdays, however men technically get an extra day for them as Thursdays from 2:30 - 6:30 are designated for men's league. 

 

You will not see a woman out on the course on Wednesdays during men's day. And if you did, I think some of the older guys there would lose their collective sh*t about it. However, plenty of the men (mostly retirees) will be out on the course on Tuesday mornings before they officially shut it off to them to make way for the ladies league later in the day. The pro shop's argument for allowing the men to go out on Tuesdays is that the women don't fill the tee sheet like the men do on a Wednesday. Even though we have a pretty strong female playing membership, it's actually a true statement. My wife is on the women's board, and she's been trying to rally the ladies to use the course more so they can fully claim Tuesdays as their own. 

 

We are better than some of the other private clubs in the area in that women can go out and play any time on the weekends. Some clubs won't let women tee off before 2:00 on weekends. However, the equality ends a bit when it comes to men's vs women's tournaments. They'll close down the course for multiple days for a men's tournament, whereas they go out of their way not to close down the course for an entire day for a ladies tournament. And I have never seen them close it for multiple days for the ladies on a weekend.