Were you to do a Google search for “Women’s Golf Clubs in America,” it will direct you to a succession of different makes of golf clubs — Titleist, Callaway, Wilson, you name it. If, on the other hand, you were to search “Women’s Golf Clubs in Scotland,” the first thing you would see is a map pin-pointing the towns and villages which are home to those golfing venues that are exclusively for women.
America does not need such a map; they do not have any all-women’s clubs.
How curious is this when you think about the umpteen Scottish-born professionals — Tommy Armour and Jock Hutchison, to name just a couple — who decided to ply their trade in the U.S. at the turn of the 19th century. They would have spread the word about the single-sex nature of the game in their homeland but, though the Americans picked up to some extent on the idea of the all-male club, they were not obviously smitten with the all-women option.
Beth Allen, the Californian professional who won the 2016 Ladies European Tour Order of Merit and has spent time living in Edinburgh, Scotland, will tell you that she has never hit on an answer to this improbable state of affairs.
“I’ve always been curious,” she said, “but that’s about as far as it goes. All I can tell you is that there aren’t very many clubs in California that are exclusively men-only either, though there are fewer than you’d find in Scotland.”
Yet we can explain how it all started. It was the same Lord Moncrieff who decreed that women should not be allowed to hit the ball any farther than 60-70 yards, and who suggested in the mid-1860s that the R&A should build their wives a putting green next to the Old Course at St Andrews. They called it The Ladies’ Putting Club of St Andrews (alias the Himalayas) and the idea was that the women could stay out of trouble with their putters while the men were playing “proper golf” on the Old Course. (Prior to the putting club’s opening in 1867, some of the ladies had been known to pass their time flirting with the caddies.)
Scots, of course, are not averse to doing things differently. They also eat haggis and, according to the Augusta Chronicle of 1989, Sandy Lyle, the reigning Masters champion, “shocked the table” at the Champions Dinner by serving this unexpected and, in some eyes at least, unsavory dish.
Currently, there are around 25 all-women’s golf clubs in Scotland. Some of them might have considered doing as the R&A, Muirfield and Troon in becoming mixed clubs after the Equality Act of 2010 came into play. However, since they — unlike those Open Championship venues — were not under any obligation to go down that route, they mostly decided that nothing could beat what they already had.
It was at a Zoom meeting with three members of St Regulus — one of the all-women’s golf establishments in St Andrews — that GGPWomen began to understand more fully why these places can be so special. The said members were Susan Wood, Elaine Moffat and Fay Ronaldson, keen golfers all, with Moffat having won the 1998 Scottish Championship.
Wood got the conversation off to a teasing start by noting that only one among the six clubs in St. Andrews was mixed.
She was, as you may or may not have guessed, referring to the Royal and Ancient. That famous establishment apart, there are three all-male clubs in the New Club, the St Andrews Club and the St Andrews Thistle Club, and three all-women’s versions in St Regulus, St Rule and the aforementioned St Andrews Ladies Putting Club.
Next, Moffat revived memories of how she had been a member of St Regulus for 42 years and how, as a 12-year-old girl, she would jump on her bike the moment the school bell rang and race down to the club. Usually, she would catch up with a few of the women before they headed for home, and at least one of their number would offer to stay back and play a few holes with this young enthusiast.
The trio were soon summing up their club as having “a full-house of members from different backgrounds, age-groups and with handicaps ranging from low single-figures upwards.” And, when Ronaldson mentioned how they all “rub along well together,” she was not just talking about their own 400-strong membership — it includes 40 juniors — but about the men and women of all of the town’s clubs.
Though tough to believe, all the St Regulus golfers pay for their annual membership is £180. Furthermore, membership of the Links’ Trust, which allows for play on all six of the town’s courses and the nearby Castle Course, is another bargain. Locals — and this has nothing to do with gender — pay £340 for a seven-day membership, or £170 if they have opted for a “restricted” or five-day arrangement.
When a member of St Regulus wants to play on the Old Course, she will need to enter a ballot two days ahead of the requisite date and, though it might depend on the time of year, the chances are that she will have her wish. Meanwhile, the club’s competition days are on a Thursday and a Saturday, with all the schedules from all clubs having been pulled together by the Links’ Trust at the start of the season. Hardly surprisingly, the various clubs cannot believe their good fortune in being able to play their annual match-play championships over the Old Course.
St Regulus, which has indoor and outdoor putting afternoons for their older members, is about golf and more golf. Furthermore, it is delightfully DIY in that each member is given a key for the front door and, on entering, can start her golfing day with a coffee dispensed from an up-to-the minute machine.
If St Rule, which is a few handsome townhouses up the road from St Regulus, costs a fair bit more than St Regulus, it is because it is as much a social club as a golf club, with the various extras including arts and crafts sessions, a bridge club and a book club. On top of all of the activities on offer, the club’s catering is the talk of the town. “My mother just loved being a member there,” said Moffat.
St Regulus, which has indoor and outdoor putting afternoons for their older members, is about golf and more golf. Furthermore, it is delightfully DIY in that each member is given a key for the front door and, on entering, can start her golfing day with a coffee dispensed from an up-to-the minute machine.
St Regulus’s happy way of golf is only interrupted — and that’s in a good way — by big events, with pride of place going to the Open. In that week of weeks, they have the best of times as they offer their services as volunteers. And wasn’t it just their luck last summer to find themselves — two at a time — manning the stand behind the 18th green.
In other words, the women of St Regulus have the twin opportunities of watching the world’s finest golfers close up, along with the chance to stretch their own games through playing on as many as seven different courses year-round.
“What more could we want?” agreed the three of them.
Enough said.