ON A sunny Saturday afternoon, the car park at Cowglen Golf Course in the southside of Glasgow is unsuprisingly packed out.
Andrew Blackwood, 44, from Rutherglen, who has been a member for six years, said he does not have a problem with female members, as long as the fees are equal for all.
"Those who have a problem are just dinosaurs who have failed to move with the times," he said. "They are stuck in the 19th century."
He said he hoped the policies of clubs such as the Royal and Ancient (R&A) will change in time and take heed of the example of Augusta.
"The US Golf Association tends to take the lead – I am hoping the R&A will follow it," he added.
Brian Beech, 36, from Partick, also believes women should be allowed to be members of any golf club.
"I think it is some of the older and stuffier golfers that have an issue with it," he said.
But when two female golfers come off the course after finishing, Pam Harvey, 66, from Ralston, says she is probably the "wrong person to ask", as she has relatives who are members of all-male golf clubs.
She added: "I don't have anything against all-male clubs if they are an established club. As long as the lady guests have equal rights."
Her playing partner, Lesley Cosh, 20, from Giffnock, thinks a bigger issue is when women are members but do not have the same rights as male members.
This type of associate membership – which involves paying reduced fees but also having restrictions around teeing-off times – is no longer permitted under equality laws.
Another two female members, who declined to give their names, hold more critical views.
One said: "I think golf clubs lose something when they don't have female members. You have to ask: what are they hiding if they don't let women in?"
Her friend said she found it "irking" not to be treated as an equal, but argued it was preferable that any change was instigated by the clubs themselves.
She said: "They really need to come to it on their own, rather than having it dictated to them by legislation."
It was then off to Pollok Golf Club – an all-male club – to discuss the issue.
One member, who wanted to stay anonymous, said he believed Gordon Brown was "publicity-seeking".
"I don't think this is a big issue within golf," he said. "You can have male clubs, ladies' clubs or mixed clubs.
"In St Andrews, there are three all-male clubs, but there are also three all-female clubs."
He argued it was "more honest" to have male-only membership in comparison to clubs which had allowed women in, but only as associate members.
He added: "It is not like women cannot play here – they can go on the course as guests and are, of course, allowed into the clubhouse."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article