THE GBQ PODCAST
“I can’t enter the debate because it’s such a nonsense conversation”
On The GBQ Podcast, Anders Mankert, owner of Leicester Golf Centre and PGA Master Professional, weighed into golf dress codes
LISTEN TO EPISODE 8 NOW
ALSO AVAILABLE ON:
Spotify: Listen Now
Amazon Music: Listen Now
Acast: Listen now
It’s an age-old issue that still splits the sport. For every pundit that describes it as a barrier to participation, for every player who uses it as an excuse not to enter a golf club, there are others who vociferously defend it as the primary way of maintaining standards in the game.
Of course, we can only be talking about golf club dress codes. It’s a conversation that leaves PGA Master Professional Anders Mankert shaking his head.
“What does it matter?” he says. “I still can’t get my head around it.”
Mankert runs Leicester Golf Centre, a 9-hole course and driving range renowned for its “no rules” policy. Dress codes don’t exist, staff make it as easy as possible to get into golf, and the place is thriving.
Leicester Golf Centre plays host to 120 youngsters every Saturday for coaching, the numbers of women playing at the former Oadby Golf Club massively buck the official statistics, and £750,000 has just been invested into a new adventure golf course.
Speaking to Sarah Stirk on The GBQ Podcast, Mankert said he considered the dress codes controversy such a “nonsense” he found it difficult to comprehend.
“I posted a picture the other day of a plasterer,” he said. “He was in between jobs, he popped in, and he’s got his plastering outfit on. It’s full of paint and he’s got his bag on his shoulder.
“He was quite an accomplished golfer. He said: ‘Can I use the range?’ I said, ‘Of course. You’re welcome. Are you playing golf as well?’
“He said, ‘No, I’d love to but obviously I’ve got this gear on’. I said, ‘That’s no problem. If you want you’re welcome to play 9-holes’. He says, ‘really?’ Yeah. So he went and played 9-holes in between jobs.
“He’s a golfer. Honesty, what does it matter? I still can’t get my head around it.”
Mankert continued: “Sometimes I can’t even enter the debate because it’s such a nonsense conversation to me. I still cannot understand how if you and I play golf today – what I choose to wear and what you choose to wear, how does it have any bearing on anybody else who’s playing golf that day?
“How does it influence their enjoyment of their game? It doesn’t. I’m from Sweden originally, and dress codes over there just don’t exist in the same way they do here. It doesn’t tell you anything about a client or a customer.”
Opponents of relaxing dress codes rules at clubs say it would lower standards and argue that they remain an important part of the tradition of the game.
“Every year it’s, ‘we’re going to do this. We’re going to open the doors. We’re going to relax things’. I don’t see a lot of it. I see a lot of talk”
But Mankert told Stirk: “All that still applies at Leicester Golf Centre – etiquette and respecting other people. The whole thing boils down to respect and consideration of other people. But you’re not going to get participation if you’re putting obstacles in the way.
“Youngsters today are not the same as youngsters 20 years ago. It is such a liberal approach now. Who wears a suit to work these days? Not very many people. The whole lifestyle is casual.
“You’ve got to adapt to your audience and if you’re sticking to those archaic regulations – you must have white socks if you want to wear shorts, or you have to have a collar on – you have just alienated an enormous part of your potential customer base.
“There are always going to be some clubs who are exclusive, and they have huge waiting lists and they’re a very aspirational club to join. Your Sunningdales and Wentworths. They’re fabulous. I love places like that. They’re very entitled to have whatever rules they choose as a club – because it’s their club.
“If you have a waiting list of two years, and you have a wealthy membership, you’re entitled to do as you wish.
“But if you are a club that’s struggling to attract memberships and you are struggling to attract juniors and you haven’t got youngsters, you can’t and are not entitled to continue with your current course of action. You have to adapt.
“If you’re a very exclusive club, brilliant, but if you’re a middle of the road golf club who cannot attract youngsters and young people you need to have a serious look. What are we doing? What are we not doing?”
Asked if there had been enough change, or whether he was frustrated by the pace at which it was moving, Mankert said: “Right now there is a lot of talk, isn’t there? Every year it’s, ‘we’re going to do this. We’re going to open the doors. We’re going to relax things’. I don’t see a lot of it. I see a lot of talk. I see conferences and events you go to. I see a lot of people standing up and talking: ‘we’re doing this. We’re doing that’.
“I don’t see much action on it. To be truthful, and from a selfish point of view, it’s good for me because I’m offering something that most others are not.
“So I’m quite content that they don’t move but, as a game and as an industry, they need to get on this. It’s not a drop in standards, by the way. Our standards are unbelievably high. It’s nothing to do with standards. Nothing.”