There are a number of reasons that fewer women than men play golf — and it might actually have to do with precisely that. Why on Earth would a woman want to tee it up with a man?
For the most part, it seems, men and women play golf but do so for different reasons.
While some of them are the same — hanging out with friends, enjoying the outdoors, scratching a little competitive itch — but, as with most things, men tend to take it more seriously and, in doing so, can really bring down the atmosphere for anyone who isn’t like-minded.
So — why specifically don’t women want to play golf with me? Here are the top-13 reasons so many ladies don’t want to play with the “gentlemen.”
13. Lots of Cursing
The saying goes that someone with a dirty mouth, “swears like a sailor”: but I think there ought to be a petition to get it changed to “swears like a golfer.”
Whether you’re a weekend hacker, a very solid amateur player or Tiger freakin’ Woods, golf finds a way to bring out the deepest, darkest, cruelest words you can summons. Even the most mild-mannered, angelic, understanding men will become swear boxes when a flubbed chip follows a piped drive.
While there are plenty of women who curses like sailors — er, golfers (I love you, honey!) most of them aren’t out there cursing up a storm when they hit a poor shot. Mostly, this can be attributed to the fact that women don’t subscribe as much importance to golf as men do.
With this in mind, it makes sense that ladies wouldn’t want to be surrounded by foul-mouthed men while they try to enjoy their round.
12. Men Like to Drink Quite a Bit
Unless you’re a single-digit handicap or an alien, you know that most weekend golfers use the game as an excuse to day drink. After all, there are few things more satisfying than day drinking.
That being said, have you ever seen a ladies group sneaking their cooler onto a cart or finding a way to transport beers in their bag without the obvious bulges in their bag? The answer, of course, is no.
I mean, men have gone as far as to invent a portable drink tap that fits into your golf bag and looks like a golf club. Now that’s dedication to the craft!
While not everyone wants to drink to forget when they hit links, getting a nice buzz on while your female playing companion stays sober can be a little upsetting — especially if you don’t hold your liquor as well as you think you do.
Ultimately, if you want to drink, you’re going to drink. It’s a free country and the course (usually) provides beer and liquor for those who’d like to indulge to purchase — but don’t expect any ladies to be playing along with you.
11. Men are Wildly Impatient
No one want’s to feel rushed when they’re on the golf course. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, people don’t need add the pressure of keeping up to the already-difficult game they’re trying to play.
Male golfers especially don’t like to wait. They want to get to their next shot and hit it. They don’t want to waste time or have their time wasted — and, unfortunately, when it comes to women golfers, they can be pretty unforgiving about being held up, even if it’s unintentional.
10. Lots and Lots of Cigar Smoke
If you’re at the golf course and you’re not drinking then odds are you’re probably smoking a cigar — which is another annoying trait of male golfers.
For me, there’s nothing better than smoking a cigar or three while I’m playing a round of golf. Whether it’s nine holes at dusk by myself or a scramble tournament with the guys, I’m not sans cigar when I’m at the golf course — except for when my fiancee wants to play.
She claims it doesn’t bother her, but then refuses to come any where near when I “smell like a dumpster fire” after the round. Obviously, it bothers her.
When it comes to the general golfing public, there are millions of cigar smokes who spend their entire rounds indulging and blowing smoke all around them, letting their smoke ride the wind into the faces of unsuspecting and unappreciative playing companions.
9. Discomfort in Unfamiliar Surroundings
Let’s face it — golf is a tough game filled with lots of lingo and hundreds of little ins, outs and what-have-yous that only a seasoned golfer would know. Unfortunately, those seasons golfers tend to forget that everyone else around them isn’t as well-versed.
As I mentioned before, most women don’t take the game as seriously as men. They interpret rules differently, give more putts, generally overlook things that your average male golfer would consider sinful.
Because of this, there’s a discomfort that comes with playing with these kinds of players. They don’t want to be constantly bugged about giving putts or things of the sort — they just want to have fun.
Unfortunately, all of the little nit-picky parts of the game can really make for an uncomfortable atmosphere for ladies who don’t go to the course pretending their on the PGA Tour.
8. “Boys Club” Stereotype
Let’s be fair here — despite all the advancements and efforts made to involve women in the game and get more ladies playing, there’s still a “boys club” feel to nearly all of the world’s golf courses.
Sure, most of that is based purely on the ratio of men to women who play the game, but it doesn’t change the fact the huge disparity between the sexes can be intimidating.
7. Fear of Being Treated as Inferior
Another sad-but-true fact is that many (not all) male golfers tend to look at women golfers with a stigma and because of it, don’t want to play with them.
The list of perceived problems is long and well-known so there’s no use in getting into here — but the fact of the matter is that many of them are exaggerated or player-specific and women golfers don’t deserve to all be lumped together
Unfortunately, “woman golfer” continues to be used by many males as a pejorative term and shows blatant disrespect for female golfers — and why on Earth would they want to play in that environment?
6. Lack of Style
Golf has long been known as a sport with horrible style. Whether it’s obnoxious colors or holding onto trends that haven’t been in vogue since the Hoover administration, golf doesn’t lend itself to those who enjoy looking their best.
When it comes to women’s golf fashion, for the most part, it’s even more disastrous. Few companies make clothing for women that is stylish and performs under pressure — and if you can’t look good doing it, then why do it?
5. Courses are Built for the Men’s Game
This one isn’t necessarily true since different tee boxes are supposed to help make the course set-up more fair for players of every ability. A lot of men play the wrong tees for their ability making the game harder than it has to be — but for women, regardless of ability, there’s one set of tees.
With that in mind, it’s tough for women to enjoy the game when they’ve got to hit 5-wood into every hole while their male counterparts are hitting 9-iron.
Understandably, this can be frustrating to watch hole-after-hole, which makes playing with men less than desirable.
4. Guys Forget Women Still Need to Hit
As with any one in the heat of competition, it’s easy for men to get caught up in their own games and rounds and forget about everyone else in the group. When playing with a woman, it’s easy forget that they still need to hit from the ladies tees and continue to walk to their ball.
3. Guys Tend to Oogle
If you’re even a marginally attractive woman and you’ve got a good golf swing, prepare to have more eyes on you than a Kardashian when you get to the golf course.
Men LOVE to look at women golfers. Many won’t admit it, but I’ve been in enough foursomes where the boys spend more time commenting on the ladies on the course than focusing on their own games.
Obviously, this is a bit disconcerting and, because, in general, men are not subtle, it’s easy for women to notice the wandering eyes — and often judging — eyes of their male playing partners
2. Lack of Confidence
Besides maybe rocket science or advanced chemistry, nothing on this Earth is tougher to master than the game of golf. Because of this, it’s incredibly difficult to create — and keep — confidence.
If you don’t play that often, you’ll never have the touch and feel you need to be the player you want to be — and that’s frustrating whether you’re a man of a woman. Combine that with the fact that everyone around you is hitting the ball farther and scoring better — and complaining about shots you’d be damn-satisfied with — can be very difficult to handle.
1. Men are Far Too Competitive
For all the reasons illustrated above, none of them keep women and men apart on the golf course more than the crazy competitive nature of male golfers.
Obviously, most men are naturally competitive. All of us like to see how big we can go, how fast we can run, how far we can throw something; we’re constantly giving ourselves little challenges to try and test ourselves. It’s why no man has even simply placed a crumpled piece of paper into a trash receptacle – it’s always shot like a last-second three-pointer.
Bring this mentality to the golf course and you can become next to insufferable for anyone around you unless they’re just as competitive.
Cyndi Lauper said “girls just want to have fun” and Arthur Keith said “Man is, by nature, competitive, combative, ambitious, jealous, envious and vengeful.” You can see why the two sexes don’t tend to play well together.