The Royal & Ancient Company of Dishonourable Golfers - Golf Society. The Brits make a Podcast!

*UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST - 8th Nov *


So, I’m a member of a couple of golf societies in the UK, which are a lot of fun. One is 80+ years old and has 150 members and is terribly well organised. The other is a group of 12 mates and we go away for a weekend every year, where we play for an individual prize to be the Champion Golfer of the Year and hold the prestigious Westwood Woollen Chalice for a period of 12 months. On day two we have a pairs match for the Hangover Cup (which is a pair of Hello Kitty mugs I bought in a thrift store).

On top of that I’ve had a plan for a while to start a proper society and call it The Royal & Ancient Company of Dishonourable Golfers. Just… well, just because.

There’s been some chat on NLU about societies and I was wondering if there’s any appetite for combining my idea and the hunger for it from NLU fans.

I’m thinking the RACDG could have regional chapters across the US and other parts of the world as it grows. So a US North East chapter, for example. A Europe South. A US Mid West.

Start off really informal. Just the name and a mixed group chat on here. Each chapter arranges one big meet a year to play for a silly named cup. Plus we invent all sorts of silly rules and toasts that have to be made at each annual dinner, etc.

If it takes off we could do more with it but it’s an umbrella association for NLU fans who want to hang out together. Maybe in time we could do some regional and international finals. But all extremely silly.

Happy to take point if there’s a hunger for it. I’m British and we’re awfully good at clubs and societies.

Thoughts?


UPDATE - 8th Nov

In the last two days we’ve had 200 posts about this and so far 57 people have publicly declared an interest. We now have 11 Chapters in their infancy in the US and Europe and the first conversations are happening about arranging meetings for those Chapters. We also have a draft Constitution, a motto (Certus Et Celer) and a Twitter handle @CertusEt. A Facebook page is in the works.

Safe to say this might now be a thing!

If you are interested in joining please use the Google Docs linked below to tag yourself in whatever part of the world you are, and also use the Google Sheet to add your info and choose which Chapter you’d like to be in. Its’ the best way to keep track of everyone and make sure everyone gets the information they need.

Each Chapter needs an Interim Captain to get them up and running, so if you have offered to do it, please change your name in the Google Sheet to Green so other people in the Chapter know to reach out to you. If there are no green names in your Chapter yet, please consider volunteering to do it. This whole thing won’t happen without someone taking that first bit of responsibility.

If you are an Interim Captain please keep an eye on the roll for your Chapter and reach out via DM to any newcomers. It’s up to you how you all choose to communicate, but a WhatsApp group in the first instance will probably suffice. The objective is to get you all talking and then to arrange a first meeting and match!

Here is the Google Sheet with the members roll call:

And here is the link to the Google Map:

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That sounds like a blast. Never been part of a society, so hopefully your cultured Brits can teach a small town Midwest USA kid a thing or two? I would certainly be interested.

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Definitely interested both in just learning more about golfing societies and joining one. I could see this overlapping with some kind of NLU Regional events, but the more golf the better, right?

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Count me as interested. Ability to follow through, we shall see. But I’m very intrigued.

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Oh i like the sound of this and i would be interested in this and lending a helping hand. No time like now to strike while the iron is hot and interest is at a high with golf societies in general

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Big yes. No better way to change the US model than to just start something new.

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That’s what I was thinking…

Exactly

And believe me, you call up most golf clubs and say you want 60 tee times and dinner afterwards, they’ll cut you a good deal.

Plus, my friend is the Marketing Director of the world’s second biggest tee time sales company, which could be handy.

Only one caveat - we only play at courses that have Width & Angles!

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I am beyond in. Happy to help with the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast chapter. I do have one question about the societies and that is how exactly do captains work? I understand loosely that they are heads of the society for a year or period of time but what do they do?

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Depending how big the chapter gets (big ones may have a secretary to help out) the captain takes responsibility for organising the events that year and then hosts them.

So on the day you turn up early, tee off last, welcome everyone, shake hands with every player and have your pic taken on the first tee, lead the dinner with a speech and officiate at the prizegiving. You also play for free that year. And you get to be the voice of that chapter within the rest of the society that year. If it got big enough we could do a Captains Day where all the captains played together somewhere, but hats a way off.

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Fantastic idea. I love playing at my home club, but always keen to join a society of like minded golfers playing decent tracks.

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Curious if this idea works across wider ranging geographies. I’m under the impression that in the UK the society is at least mostly populated by people in the same town or surrounding towns or towns around a more urban hub.

Can it work well with folks ranging from a few hundred miles apart?

Great question. My guess would be feasibility is dependent on the individuals’ willingness to commit to traveling for the events and staying in frequent communication.

I think golf societies such as the Outpost Club and Friars Club prove the feasibility of this idea as Outpost Club has members spread across the world now. I’m not as familiar with the Friar’s Club but I think its members are spread across the US and in different countries.

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Actually, most societies are set up by people who share a common interest and who can arrange to meet socially a few times a year so they can share those interests, even if they don’t live close enough to each other to be members at the same club.

For example, I’m a member of the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising Golf Society (IPAGS) and we have 5/6 meetings a year, plus a golf trip or two and a few dinner only events in London (there’s actually one tomorrow at the RAC in London but I couldn’t go). Most of the meets are in Surrey courses but the trips can be to Scotland or Ireland. We have members from all over the world, including New York and Hong Kong. One of the NYC guys comes over twice a year!

The nature of them means they’re more suited to geographical dispersenent than regular golf clubs and were founded to overcome geographical boundaries initially.

What I envisage initially is simply a focal point for Refuge and NLU regulars to get together. I think the NLU team have liked the idea of NLU fans having get togethers but it’s too much to ask them to do it. We have to do it ourselves and this is a good way to start that. Just a common cause United under a common banner, the Royal & Ancient Company of Dishonourable Golfers, because that makes me laugh.

We’ll all get out of it what we put in really. :slight_smile:

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Well said. Hopefully it gets to the point where groups begin to organize travel and play matches against other regions/countries/chapters.

Hopefully

Also, still cannot get over the name its still cracking me up and making me laugh

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I’m quite proud of it :smirk:

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