In our last outing, we talked about golf clubs, the kind you  hit the ball with.  Now, as we promised, it’s time to discuss the kind of golf clubs you join.

            Ever since a group of Scots decided they’d rather hang out together and hit stones with a crooked stick instead of eating haggis and spending time with their wives, golf clubs have been a great institution.  Of course, if you’ve ever eaten haggis or seen Scottish women, you’d probably wonder why it took those poor fellows so long to find an excuse to get out of the house.  In any event, the formation of golf clubs has been an integral part of golf’s grand traditions.

            Not that you’d know it from the media in this country.  The “politically correct” thought police who write for many of our publications and work for the television networks portray golf clubs as elitist, male-dominated institutions that keep us from becoming a perfect society.  To hear people like Christine Brennan tell it, private golf clubs are the main reason we haven’t achieved peace in the Middle East or discovered the cure for cancer.  To their way of thinking, if they can deprive the rest of us of the right to pick our friends, and instead force us to spend our precious free time with their friends, then the world would be a much better place for everyone.

            As you may have figured out by now, that kinda galls me.  Anyone with any knowledge of history should be able to figure out that freedom, as in free enterprise, is what made this country great.  The minute you stop rewarding people for working, you stop people from working.  And if they consider being in their own private golf club a just reward for their labors, then they should have a right to do it.

            How come people like Christine Brennan defend abortion, which kills innocent children, with the words “freedom of choice,” and in the next breath want to deprive adults of the freedom of choosing their friends?  Am I the only one who finds this remarkably hypocritical?

            Beyond that, the fact is that most private clubs are not exclusionary or discriminatory, except on the basis of your ability to pay your fair share of the club’s expenses.  For every Augusta National or Cypress Point, there are thousands of clubs like mine, the Lake Charles Country Club, that welcome members of all faiths, persuasions, and race, so long as they conduct themselves properly and pay their dues.  Now, I’m not saying we’d have Christine Brennan for a member, but just about anyone else is welcome.

            I guess you can tell I’m a Republican, huh?