The Week That Was, september 21, 2014

     Just months after announcing that his first course in the Middle East would be his last, Donald Trump has accepted an offer he apparently couldn’t refuse. Trump has been hired to oversee the construction of Damac Properties’ forthcoming golf club at the ultra-posh Akoya Oxygen community in Dubai. Trump World Golf Club Dubai, already under construction in Dubailand, will feature an 18-hole, tournament-worthy golf course that’s been designed by an as-yet unidentified “world-renowned golf professional.” The course is scheduled to debut sometime in 2017. Akoya Oxygen is said to be just a short drive from Damac’s Akoya community, where Trump is building a Gil Hanse-designed golf course that’s expected to open next summer. In June, Trump indicated that he had no Middle Eastern golf ambitions beyond Hanse’s course. “I only do something if I can top it,” he explained, “and I’m not going to be able to top this golf course in the Middle East.” Maybe he’s changed his mind.

     On the same day that the people of Scotland voted to maintain a status quo, the members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club voted overwhelmingly to break with 260 years’ worth of discriminatory tradition. Bowing to pressure from one of the golf industry’s corporate benefactors, the all-male club has, as expected, chosen to end its gender bias and open its doors to women. “This is a very important and positive day in the history of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club,” said Peter Dawson, the club’s secretary, in a comment published by the New York Times. “I think it is a very positive message for the game of golf.” Nobody with a stake in our industry would disagree. The club’s vote is largely symbolic, of course, but symbols carry great weight in modern, fast-paced societies. These days they’re especially important to golf, which desperately needs to overcome the widespread perception that the sport is reserved pretty much exclusively for rich white men. As the National Football League will soon discover, embracing the wrong social message can have damaging economic consequences. The Royal & Ancient’s vote is a proud achievement for golf, a true watershed moment. Let’s hope there are more like it in the future.

     As a result of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club’s decision, the clock has begun to tick on the other all-male clubs in the rotation for the Open Championship: Muirfield, Royal St. George’s, and Royal Troon. In the coming months, the members of these clubs will be forced to measure the glory of the past against the promise of the future. The members will decide what matters most to them, for they’ll choose between maintaining their traditions and hosting golf’s most historic, most prestigious professional tournament. It’s important to note that these three clubs have a right to exist and to set their own membership policies, exclusionary or not. But a club’s values are an expression of its character, and hosting the Open is a privilege that can no longer go to venues whose retrograde policies ultimately marginalize our industry. There’s way too much money at stake.

     The world’s financially besieged course owners and operators can sleep better tonight, because Jon McCarthy of the Toronto Sun has declared that “the game of golf will be fine.” So stop worrying, eh? McCarthy didn’t predict exactly when our industry would get closer to fine, but he’s absolutely sure it’ll eventually happen because it has a “secret weapon,” namely “the people it attracts.” And when McCarthy says “people,” he isn’t talking about the regular Joes who line up for tee times at your local muni. He’s talking about the “captains of industry and world leaders” who join private clubs, where they mingle with other “doers, not watchers.” It pains me to say it, but he’s talking about “people who prefer to look for answers, not handouts.” Rarely do so few words offend so many. If anyone is looking for evidence of why golf seems exclusionary and unwelcoming to so many people, McCarthy’s essay is it.

     “Not enough members” was the hashtag John Daly used to announce some sad news: “Have to shut doors and sell my golf course.” He was referring to Lion’s Den Golf Club, the venue where he learned to play golf. Daly bought the 18-hole course, in suburban Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2005. He expects to turn off the lights on Wednesday.