The green is becoming fair game for women, and in particular for black women. It is a revolution on the course, but also a symbol of a South Africa rapidly caddied into a future that was unimaginable 10 years ago.
Cecilia Mseteka, president of the 24K Ladies Golf Society, says: “What I found amusing when I first joined a club here four years ago was that people actually stopped on fairways to see how or if you are going to hit your ball. I found that very amusing. There are more black women playing now and people are getting used to the idea.”
There are no hard-and-fast figures of black women golfers, but a sortie to the field reveals much.
On the occasional Sunday members of the 24K Ladies Golf Society get together with golf irons, rather than domestic irons, at hand — and work on their game. Mseteka, the president, who has a handicap of 15 and has been playing golf since 1986, was introduced to the sport through work. She parodies the Something Fishy advert: “‘One great shot and you’re hooked.’ Each time the company I worked for sponsored a tournament we were given the chance to go and watch, and that is where I developed the interest.”
In South Africa there is a huge drive by companies such as Transnet to promote golf among their women executives, with myriad golfing events being hosted nationwide. This month alone the Women’s PGA will be hosting at least five major events, including the Nedbank Women’s Golf Tour, the Acer Women’s SA Open and the Telkom SA Women’s Classic.
It is transformation in progress. Secretary of the South African Ladies Golf Union Viv Horak says there are 14 035 women registered and affiliated to golf clubs nationwide.
But the numbers of female golfers are even higher. Christine Iliadis, who works with Women’s Golf Southern Africa, says: “It is the women coming into the game, who are not yet officially registered with a golf club or who do not yet have official handicaps — the beginners and social golfers — that are growing at a fast and furious pace.”
With more and more women climbing on the golf cart it seems affluence rather than gender or race might just be the boarding pass. The beginner’s main handicap is club membership, which runs up to five figures, and the green fees and 19th-hole drinks ensure that only those who manage to keep up with the Khumalos will continue to get their golfing fix.
With power and status being the unspoken requisites of a golfer, it would seem that having words such as “stroke play” and “handicap” in one’s vocabulary are a new marker of the Living Standard Measure.
Dorah Sitole, True Love magazine’s food editor, says she plays for the pure love of the sport. “Golf can be addictive because each time you are competing against yourself or the course. A good game means coming back again because the course was so kind to you, a bad game means coming back again because you want to show the course you can beat it.
“One finds every excuse under the sun to be on those lush greens. Of course, I enjoy chatting to the ladies, and guys, at games, but quite frankly it has no direct impact on my business.”
Although her society mate Mseteka professes her love of the sport, she does reveal that she uses golf “for networking … You get to meet the decision-makers on golf courses.”
But what doesn’t work for many of the women, particularly the younger players, are the outdated dress codes, with the standard-issue khaki trousers being a little too dull for those who don’t wish to leave style in the change rooms.
Marc Penn of The Pro Shop says: “We have an annual ladies fashion show at our store in Woodmead, which has proved immensely popular over the years with approximately 1 200 women golfers attending last year’s event.”
Golf may not always have been about the get-up, but changing times demand changing mores.
Another avenue of foray into the fold is through the Golf4All programme, a non-profit organisation that is part of the Vodacom World of Golf experience. Its aim is to break down the traditional barriers of entry and to grow the number of golfers in South Africa. Nearly 5 000 students have come on board over the past three years. Of these budding golfers, 881 (18%) are black women with only 618 (12,6%) black men.