Not Playing the Game

Golf was one of the fastest growing recreational sports in Britain during the late Victorian and Edward period. Like most sporting clubs of the time golf clubs enabled the formation of bonding social capital rather than the bridging kind. Yet within this socially-controlled use of land for a specific recreational purpose there was no total exclusion. Female and working-class players were accommodated without breaking down the male middle-class dominance by parent-club development of separate ‘ladies’ sections and artisan clubs.