{"id":204,"date":"2017-09-20T09:36:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T09:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/?p=204"},"modified":"2020-06-18T17:49:30","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T17:49:30","slug":"the-most-dog-friendly-golfing-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/2017\/09\/20\/the-most-dog-friendly-golfing-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Dog-Friendly Golfing in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Dog-friendly-golfing-in-the-UK.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Dog-friendly golfing in the UK\" src=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Dog-friendly-golfing-in-the-UK_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Dog-friendly golfing in the UK\" width=\"385\" height=\"192\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Dog-friendliness lies at the extremes of the UK\u2019s geography and socio-economic landscape. The most dog friendly clubs in the land are found in the extreme north of Scotland or the extreme south of the south coast. Similarly, they are found in the most posh, most elite clubs or conversely the least expensive, casual rock-up 9-hole courses on common land. The more to the middle of the price range or the land mass, the less dog-friendly the courses become.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">I asked all 2633 courses in the UK \u201c<i>Are dogs allowed to accompany players on the course?\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i><span style=\"color: #008000;\">384 of UK\u2019s 2633 (15%) golf courses allow dogs in some capacity.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Here are the headliner stats on dog-friendliness in the United Kingdom\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Most Dog-Friendly Areas<\/b> \u2013 Scotland, South Coast and Greater London all have a dog-friendly rate of around 22%<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Most Dog-Friendly Counties \u2013<\/b> Suffolk (36%), Highlands (32%), Cornwall (32%)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Most Dog-Friendly Cities<\/b> \u2013 Edinburgh (6 courses), Woking (4 courses) followed by Cambridge, Saint Andrews, Brighton, Bournemouth, Ashford, Alton, Guildford all with 3.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Least Dog-Friendly Areas<\/b> \u2013 North Ireland (4%), North England (7%), Wales (10%)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Least Dog-Friendly Counties \u2013<\/b> A number of counties don\u2019t have any (identified as yet). Counties Leicestershire, Cheshire and Warwickshire all have a single dog-friendly course putting them in the low single digits.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Most Lead-Optional<\/b> (Under Control) Counties \u2013 Kent (12 courses), Surrey (10), Suffolk (8)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Dog-Friendly-Golf-Courses-UK-heat-map-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Dog Friendly Golf Courses UK heat map\" src=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Dog-Friendly-Golf-Courses-UK-heat-map_thumb-1.jpg\" alt=\"Dog Friendly Golf Courses UK heat map\" width=\"424\" height=\"570\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Golfing with dogs not just more prevalent at the geographical extremes, but also the economic extremes. The most prestigious and expensive clubs welcome dogs and so do the most basic inexpensive parkland 9-hole par-3 courses. The exclusive clubs that welcome dogs include Wentworth, Sunningdale, The Berkshire, St. Andrews, Muirfield, Turnberry, Swinley Forest and Loch Lomond. Their legacy stems from decades ago when gentlemen members would often go hunting in winter months, but want to do something with the dogs in the summertime. And the lower end courses tend to be more relaxed about all policies and often have open-access covenants so dog-walkers are on the courses regularly any way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">A couple of the most dog friendly courses include the following\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Sunningdale Golf Club<\/b> \u2013 The clubhouse restaurant has a special menu for the dogs dining there.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Goodwood Golf Club<\/b> \u2013 The club has a special \u201cKennels Dog Membership\u201d for dogs (the proceeds of which go to benefit the charity \u201cHounds for Heroes\u201d) with special benefits of special treats, \u2018clean up\u2019 bags, walk maps and a personalised dog bowl kept at the club.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">In the process of doing the research, I also uncovered some other curiosities about UK golf in general\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Response Rate<\/b> &#8211; Despite making direct and personal contact through whatever means directed by their website (contact form, email, telephone), the response rate to my simple question was 45%. If this was a general survey, that would be a great response rate. But as a potential visitor\/member asking a specific question, more than half of the UK golf courses couldn&#8217;t be bothered to respond.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Percent No<\/b> <b>Contact<\/b> \u2013 I\u2019m not sure what is worse\u2026not responding or not providing any way for a member\/visitor to contact you. 51 courses (2%) provided no contact details whatsoever (or the advertised website was down, email bounced or telephone disconnected).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Percent Closed<\/b> \u2013 The list of courses pulled from Wikipedia is not a definitive list and not sure how well it is maintained, but I was still surprised to find 116 courses (5%) permanently closed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">The wording of the dog policies varies tremendously. Some are quite simple (\u201c<i>Dogs are allowed under control<\/i>\u201d), but some are a bit more fun\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">\u201c<i>Dogs are welcome! As long as they wear proper golf shoes<\/i>.\u201d &#8211; Langlands Golf Club<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">\u201c<i>2 rules &#8211; Clear up after them and they are not allowed to steal other players balls!!\u201d<\/i> \u2013 Machrie Bay<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">\u201c<i>Dogs are mandatory. If you don\u2019t have one, you can probably hire one from one of the other members<\/i>&#8221; \u2013 New Zealand Golf Club<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dog-friendliness lies at the extremes of the UK\u2019s geography and socio-economic landscape. The most dog friendly clubs in the land are found in the extreme north of Scotland or the extreme south of the south coast. Similarly, they are found in the most posh, most elite clubs or conversely the least expensive, casual rock-up 9-hole [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}