The Woman Captain is a part of the custom at members’ golf equipment. In my ebook it needs to be considered an actual honour to be requested. Nonetheless, it appears that evidently at many golf equipment this long-standing establishment is slowly dying. I belong to 2 very totally different golf golf equipment, one which has a thriving girls’s part with over 100 lively taking part in girls and consequently virtually a ready checklist of these keen, ready and eager to tackle the Woman Captain’s position. The opposite, has solely a handful of girls and no Woman Captain for quite a few years now, just because no-one was ready to tackle the job.
Let’s face it, the phrase ‘job’ is actually one of the best description for this position. It requires dedication and dedication to the membership for a yr of your life (two should you depend the vice-captaincy). It’s unpaid, though often in change free of charge subs, and sometimes not as rewarding because it appears.
Such is the opinion of Morgan Porter, Woman Captain at Lee-on-the-Solent Golf Membership in Hampshire who has discovered her time in workplace extraordinarily demanding. “I began my captaincy final November and to be trustworthy there have been days once I’ve thought, what on earth have I achieved,” she explains. “It’s important to be fairly thick-skinned to do that job. I solely agreed to do it as a result of I used to be a bit tipsy and no-one else would. Regardless of not being your common Woman Captain I bought voted in unanimously. I turned 50 final yr, I’m homosexual and my spouse performs on the identical membership. Ninety 9 per cent of the ladies are very accepting, however there may be at all times the odd one or two who deal with you disrespectfully, don’t take part and don’t even say hi there to you.”
In response to Porter there are positives and negatives of the position. Highlights embody elevating cash for captain’s charity days and attempting to place issues in place for future generations, to convey the membership collectively so that there’s much less segregation, progressing it into the twenty first century. One such change is transferring the ladies’s honours boards from the women’ locker room to a extra outstanding place throughout the clubhouse. “Our new chairman agrees that we needs to be out on present alongside the boys’s boards however the outdated boys brigade is being awkward,” she complains. “I’ve been met with many misogynistic feedback about adjustments I’ve launched as a result of they suppose that I’m eradicating traditions,” she provides. “The way in which I see it’s I’m making new ones.”
Time, or extra particularly an absence of it, is a large hurdle to beat to persuade girls they will deal with the position. “I’m self-employed and don’t have any time for ‘precise’ work,” jokes Porter. “It’s all golf-golf-golf and assembly after assembly.” It’s a sentiment echoed by Woman Captains throughout the nation.
Laura Jarman is the 2023 Girls Captain at Bowood PGA Golf Membership. She works full time, supplementing her revenue with a second job as effectively. She’s one of many youthful era of gamers at her membership in her mid-thirties. On paper she was an unlikely candidate for the position, nonetheless she took it on. “It’s manageable and I’ve had help the place wanted by a number of the beautiful previous Woman Captains too,” she insists.
For a lot of girls, changing into the Woman Captain of their membership is a part of a life-long ambition. “I took up golf 9 years in the past after shedding 17 stone,” explains Trish O’Neill who’s Woman Captain at South Beds. “Over time I’ve had many operations however carried on taking part in golf all through. I like my golf and love the women. I’ll by no means be an excellent golfer however I’m so happy with what I’ve achieved and to be Woman Captain is really an honour.”
Many golf equipment are having to resort to asking girls who’ve already captained their girls’ part to repeat the position. In Tracey McCormack’s case 5 occasions! “We’re a really small part at Pitreavie in Scotland and in 2017 we struggled to get somebody to tackle the position,” she explains. “I work and have a household however to avoid wasting the part from folding I made a decision to take it on and have been captain proper via from Might 2017 to the current day. I will proceed to be there for the women’ part for so long as wanted.”
Kate Hanley is one other lady making a present of solidarity at her membership Nazeing in Essex. “I’m simply ending my third stint as Woman Captain as we discover fewer and fewer members need to take it on,” she explains. “Committees are altering and I hear from different golf equipment that a number of haven’t got captains. They only handle to appoint a ‘captain for the day.’ I concern that we’ll be going that means too, which is such a disgrace, because it was at all times a privilege and honour not a chore to be a captain.”
It’s the same scenario at Midland’s membership Robin Hood the place the ladies devised a listing of all of the issues that want doing for his or her part. “We had a lot of girls signal as much as assist with one factor or one other however no-one wanting the management,” feedback Lorraine Baldwin. “Then fortunately on the eleventh hour a girl put herself ahead. We’re preserving the ‘checklist’ and the volunteers for every job and the brand new Woman Captain might be a figurehead.”
Judith Gorman (pictured in title picture) has progressed from Woman Captain to Woman President at Cleethorpes Golf Membership. She took on the position regardless of working, as a result of she needed her late dad, who was her rock, to see her ‘drive-in’. “Golf has at all times been a giant a part of my household and to know that he was happy with me captaining the membership means every thing to me,” she reminisces.
“The job is all-consuming,” insists Jude MacKenzie, who was Woman Captain of Sundridge Park in 2021. “I knew that I would not be capable of do it and work as effectively, so my husband agreed to help me for the yr. Now we have extra girls accessible to ask than most golf equipment but there have been years when it has been troublesome to search out somebody who would say sure. It’s because the position is understood to be just about a full-time job, typically with plenty of politics.”
Many ladies are postpone by the lengthy checklist of duties the position requires. Some girls merely hate giving speeches, others dread the prospect of getting to take a seat on the membership committee or organize the massive social occasions. If you do not have expertise of these items they will appear daunting and off-putting.
Regardless of the plain stresses and strains, there are some great tales of girls who’re ready to ‘do all of it’ to stop their membership from going with out. Debbie Watt is considered one of them. A single mum or dad with two youngsters who works full-time and is juggling an already busy schedule with the Woman Captain position at Arran Belleisle Girls Golf Membership. “It’s been a exercise!” she exclaims. “However a lot of joyful occasions to go together with it. I do know that many golf equipment are struggling to fill this position which is gloomy to see.”
At Sheerness GC, on the Isle of Sheppey, Rae Earl is set to not let this long-standing membership custom come to an finish. She has simply completed captaining the membership for the third time. “The second time I used to be joint captain was in 2014 with my finest pal, which labored amazingly effectively as we shared our duties and coated for one another when essential,” she recollects. “Very totally different from the first-time round, 10 years earlier, once I was working two part-time jobs, three days and two nights every week however fortunately every thing went effectively.”
The apparent benefit of being a captain on a number of events is that you’re not phased by the job and know what it requires. There are different little perks, like having your meal served first at each perform and getting first dibs on the tee time reserving system to ensure your title on the beginning sheet each week that give it the silver lining.
“I’m additionally Woman Captain for the third time,” Lynne Jones tells me. “It has been very troublesome discovering somebody to tackle the position at Hollywood GC as we’re a really small part. Our different was for the women committee to step up nonetheless, I’m a agency believer in ‘use it or lose it’. Consequently I’ve taken on the position once more.” I’ve solely scratched the floor right here and there are tales of heroism like this, to maintain the position alive, throughout the nation.
It’s clear that there’s an ever-growing drawback and long-standing members of golf equipment are lamenting the lack of this legacy. “I had one of the best Woman Captain’s yr anybody might want for in1998,” recollects Susan Wooden of Low Laithes GC. “I by no means would have imagined a day once we could be struggling to get girls to tackle this excellent alternative, it’s such a disgrace.”
Sadly, that is the fact. One answer could possibly be for golf equipment to adapt the Woman Captain’s position to one thing extra of a ‘figurehead’ with much less duties and tasks than the standard job description. This may occasionally make it simpler to search out keen volunteers – solely time will inform. For custom’s sake I definitely hope that struggling golf equipment discover a option to appoint a Woman Captain in order that their historical past doesn’t get erased from the ladies’s honours boards for good.