White, wealthy and wasteful: does golf have a future?
telegraph.co.uklegendary Spanish former world number one Seve Ballesteros, and pitched him the idea of designing his first UK course. Ballesteros was up for it, so they went into partnership, eventually opening The Shire in 2007.‘Seve [who died in 2011] was adored mainly because he was working class,’ says Cae Menai-Davis. ‘What does that say about golf, that someone can be adored, be seen as different, just because they’re not from money?
There’s so much money in the game, but it doesn’t filter down.’The Shire remains the only Ballesteros-designed course in the country, and since then, the Menai-Davis family have been on a mission to alter the general reputation of golf as elite, white, wealthy, greedy and – to some – utterly pointless.Menai-Davis gestures to some members, a diverse group of varying ages and ethnicities, just heading in for a post-round pint. ‘How a sport becomes seen as elitist is how it’s marketed, how it’s advertised, and over the last century, golf has become that,’ he says.
Menai-Davis also runs a charity, The Golf Trust, which aims to make the sport more inclusive.‘If you’re only shown one picture, then seeing golf as elitist is understandable.
For us, though, sport is equal. You shouldn’t need to be given permission to walk on to a golf course.’The problem, which he realises, is that golf doesn’t tend to help itself.
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