One tweet to neatly sum up the scale of the image problem golf faces.

The missive was part of a Twitter discussion about the announcement last week that Monash Council in Melbourne is considering alternative uses for the nine-hole Oakleigh course.

There were multiple good responses to our friend @backwiththflyt (https://bit.ly/3F08vFi) when he fired off the above (and a few which do the game a disservice, sadly) but the reality is there are many – perhaps even a majority – who ascribe to his views.

And when it comes to public golf, that is a very dangerous situation.

Deconstructing the absurdity of the claims made is easy enough but the fact they continue to exist – and widely – amongst people who don’t play is a genuine cause for concern.

Last week I stumbled across a fascinating study commissioned by Syngenta Golf, an arm of agtech company Syngenta, which identifies some of the issues.

Syngenta Golf focusses on ways to grow the business of golf and increase female participation.

As part of that mission, they analyse the game from multiple angles and between 2019 and 2022 commissioned a major study into golf’s image on social media.

"The quickest and most effective way to ensure golf becomes a pursuit only for the ‘privileged few’ is to remove it as an affordable public offering from the urban landscape."

It produced some fascinating findings* but among the most interesting (for the purposes of this discussion) was that ‘you’re either a golfer … or you’re not.’

“In the same way that conversations about golf tend to be polarized around either politics or personal experiences of golf, there is also a clear divide in audiences: you’re either a golfer, or you’re not,” the report, which examined 16.1 million mentions of the game on social media, said.

“… there is a persistent gap between golf enthusiasts and the rest of the population. Golfers focus on different topics and express different mental associations with golf.

“The important difference is based in whether individuals perceive and project themselves as golfers, irrespective of ability or commitment. If you’re a golfer, you’re in.

“The issue is whether a prospective player can perceive themselves joining the golf community and whether they feel it is sufficiently inclusive.”

That last part is, for mine, the important one.

More than perhaps any other recreational pursuit, golf seems to engender in the non-golf community feelings beyond mere indifference and bordering on genuine animosity.

There is a real ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ undertone to it.

Lefty’s comment at the top of this piece is a typical example and while those views must be challenged and shown for the falsehoods they represent at every opportunity, there is a bigger question to be considered.

Not only why those views seem so prevalent but how the game, as a whole, can work to correct them.

Responding on a case by case basis as news breaks of another public facility coming under threat hardly seems an effective strategy.

Golf is a complex and multi-faceted game and as anybody with a non-golfing friend or partner will know it is one that is difficult to explain to those not bitten by the bug.

But that is the challenge that faces the game’s administrators – and frankly all of us who play – if we don’t want golf to become the narrow offering its detractors accuse it of.

Because the quickest and most effective way to ensure golf becomes a pursuit only for the ‘privileged few’ is to remove it as an affordable public offering from the urban landscape.

*The Syngenta report is a goldmine of information and its findings are genuinely fascinating. It can be found HERE.