A Dog’s Eye View on Golf

A Dogs Eye View on Golf

When I first added the reviews of the dog-friendly course to the Dog Golf website, I wanted the observations to be from the dog’s perspective and what they would care about, though I wrote about it in the first person. Robert F. Bradford (aka “The General”) recently penned a charming report of one of his golf outings with his trusty conscript Dashiell Doggett for Dogs Today magazine, but he wrote it from Pvt. Doggett’s voice. Here is an excerpt:

  • “The General (as he calls himself since reading that every boy with a dog becomes Napoleon) took me on field maneuvers for the first time today…He took his bag of metal sticks out from under the back porch, put snacks for himself in the little pockets, and topped up what he calls the ‘birdie bottle’…My job was to keep an eye on them to make sure we didn’t lose them in the gullies and woods into which they kept chasing a little round white thing…Whenever they caught up with it, they would beat at it with a stick, and it would skitter away – usually sideways. Then they would say bad words, usually in a growl, but sometimes in an explosive bark, and occasionally in a yip of pain. It seemed we were on a hunt, and their talk of hooks and slices bethought me of meat, hung and carved, but it was just an imaginary safari, beating their way up a series of narrow fields, deliciously lined by trees, bushes, and flowers, until they surrounded a gopher hole with their little round white things, which they would then knock back and forth, criss-crossing the hole several times before finally making the little round white thing disappear.”

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Beachwood (USA)

Beachwood - Josie

Welcome – Just when I had started giving up hope finding dog-friendly courses in the USA, I stumbled upon a Christmas gift of serendipity. Over the yuletide holidays, we were visiting my sister-in-law who has a beach house in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Once the weather warmed up a bit from the unseasonably low sub-zero temperatures, we decided to play a round. We were spoiled for choice as there are over 80 (!) courses in the Myrtle Beach area, but we ventured to the nearby Beachwood GC. A lovely course who just blocks from the beach (so some of the holes have bonus “sand” bunker lining the entire flank of the hole as underneath the landscaping surface is essentially a big sand pit. As we were finishing our play, we came upon the Kevin with his lovely dog, Josie (see photo above). He was in a golf cart and going from hole to hole so I thought he was playing, but when I approached, I saw that he didn’t have clubs. So, I feared that it was just another example of a groundskeeper bringing along a canine companion, but playing with them wouldn’t be allowed. But (after a cheery welcome from Josie – see below) it turns out that he was the GM of the course and confirmed that dogs were indeed welcome. He noted that several members bring their pups regularly. Bingo!

Walk – As you would expect from a coastal course, the walk is completely flat (which was welcome as I’m not sure our post-feasting condition could have managed anything much more challenging).

Water – Half of the holes have water hazards, many of which are quite substantial, but I’m not sure how much of an opportunity for a drink on a hot southern summer’s day as they are likely quite brackish. But the course does wind back around to the clubhouse at the 9th so you can refill your water bottle/dish.

WildlifeSQUIRREL!!! And not just any squirrels, but these huge, fluffy, and fairly tame black squirrels the likes of which I had never seen before. They were captivating Lori’s and my attention so who knows how distracting they would be to a canine companion.

Wind Down – Finding dog-friendly eateries in the USA is just as hard as finding golf course. https://www.bringfido.com is a great site with a database of dog welcoming establishments. It shows a Krave Bagel Bistro right next door, but the Beachwood course also does have a restaurant with an of grilled items.

Beachwood - Josie 2

Why Aren’t More USA Courses Dog Friendly?

Southern Hills - dog greeters

Happy New Year! Long time since I’ve checked in. Primarily because the English winter weather has descended making rounds hard to squeeze in between the gaps of rainfall and the shrinking daylight hours. Fortunately, we were able to juggle the various COVID controls and get ourselves to the USA to see family for the holidays. Lori’s family lives in North Carolina which is quite a popular golfing destination and we not only had plenty of courses to choose from, but warm and dry weather to play in!

One of our rounds was at the Southern Hills Golf Course in Danville, Virginia. When we arrived, we were greeted by a couple of charming canines (see photo above) and thought that we might just have stumbled on a rare dog-friendly course in America. Unfortunately, the friendly welcome was confined to the pro shop and dogs were not allowed to accompany players. But I did have a very friendly and informative chat with the proprietor about some of the distinctly American challenges to welcoming dogs so I thought that I would share them here:

  1. Less Dog Friendly in General – The USA is simply less dog-friendly than Europe. This “20 Most Dog Friendly Countries in the World” list features 13 European countries and the USA is nowhere to be seen. Our American friends are astonished that we can bring Grace to accompany us not just on the golf course, but also to pubs and cafes for meals.
  2. Less Walking the Course – Not wishing to propagate the “lazy American” stereotype, but our visit made it clear that walking the course is much less common. We had always noticed the preponderance of buggies on American courses when we played there in the past. In some courses, buggies are virtually mandatory. Southern Hills didn’t even offer trollies to rent (though you could carry your bag). In fact, Versed noted that Americans are 6 times more likely to use a golf cart than Brits. And if you’re not walking the course, it doesn’t make much sense to bring your dog along.  An article in Golf.com observed:
     
    Sure, golfers in every country forego carts, but in the British Isles walking is more or less compulsory; you generally need a medical exemption to get a cart. Whatever the conditions — in wind, rain or hail — Brits grab a trolley and off they go.”
      
  3. More Insurance Restrictions and Lawsuits – As much as Americans don’t like walking, they notoriously do like to file law suits. As a result, insurance (the public liability insurance that you purchase to protect your from lawsuits) dictates many aspects of business and public life. This consideration was also prominent for Southern Hills who told us that their insurance company would flat out not permit them to have dogs on their course.  I was able to get an expert perspective from Peter Small, Area Senior Vice President of RPS Bollinger Sports & Leisure who specialise in golf course cover:
     
    “Some policies have an ‘animal exclusion’ and other don’t, however if the dog is not owned by the golf course and a member of the public brings their own dog on to the course, there is really no liability on the golf club for the actions of that dog. I would assume most golf courses would require a waiver signed prior to allowing the dog on to the premises which would/should put the sole responsibility of the dog on the owner. Many other variables could impact the coverage depending on what state the club is located in.”
  4. Less of a Tradition – UK tradition of golfing with dogs started from the gentlemenly roots of the sport which shot birds with their dogs in the winter and shot birdies with their dogs in the summer. This heritage created a tradition very early in the sport’s history. The first golf club in America, Saint Andew’s GC in Yonkers NY was set up more than a century after the nearly eponymous home of golf, St. Andrews in Scotland east coast led the way with establishing the sport in the USA. On the other hand (or other side of the country), game (pheasant) shooting as a sport started more on the west coast and Midwest. So in the formative years of USA golfing, bird dogs were not as prevalent among the golfing crowd.