Golfing bogey

IN HER column headed “Time to drive golf sexism into the rough” (Perspective, 13 July), Erikka Askeland admits she does not understand golf when she quotes Mark Twain’s aphorism that “golf is a good walk spoiled”.

She recognises history when she calls it the Open and not the British Open; so why can she not recognise that the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, founded in 1744, is still a private gentlemen’s club and, therefore, surely it can keep to its own membership rules.

Even men can be excluded from membership. Alex Salmond would be unlikely to get the required support, given his recent comments on golf clubs.

If the unlikely were to happen, then he could quote Groucho Marx: “I would not join a 
club that would have me as a member.”

Ronald Rankin

Coates House

Dalkeith, Midlothian