Naked at the Golf Course - A Naughty Fad Hits the Fairways

Remember planking?

About a year ago it was quite the fad.  For several months you couldn't go anywhere on the internet without running into the image of someone's rigid body, face down arms with arms their sides, in an incongruous location.  The craze was completely global, and for a while people were planking everywhere, from the Pyramids of Egypt to the floor of the NY public library. The more dexterous among them could be found perilously positioned in overhead luggage bins, on top of towering billboards and high in the branches of trees.  Golf courses presented creative plankers with numerous options, as well. 

However like most internet memes, planking's popularity was short lived, and after spawning some interesting off-shoots, ( teapotting - owling - Tebowing) it's settled into internet oblivion where it will languish while other fads step up to enjoy their fifteen minutes. So along comes... Dogging.

In fact, dogging's been around for quite a while, but it now seems poised to reach planking-like levels of popularity.  With dogging, the supposedly staid and solicitous Brits have taken things to a naughty new level, and they've got one golf course doing some emergency reputation management.

Dogging... in a nutshell... is a variation on planking that incorporates sex, nudity and some very social networking.  Also included are elements of swinging and voyeurism... all in the great outdoors.  As with planking, the object is to produce a photograph... or video... that will ultimately be posted to the internet.  But an effective "dogging post" must illustrate a sexual situation, either with nudity or with something a bit more graphic blatantly pornographic. Unlike planking no particular body position is required, though, not surprisingly, some degree of rigidity is often featured in dogging posts.

Once practiced almost exclusively in cars at rural parks, or on isolated lover's lanes, dogging has transcended those cloistered confines and is now taking place in public parks, suburban parking lots, on village lanes... and on golf courses.  Till now, most of the "golf dogging" was done on anonymous fairways or in ubiquitous pot bunkers, but last week Lincoln Golf Center in Thorpe-on-the-Hill, found itself in a rather embrassing position when a curvaceous female dogger boldly flaunted her assets in front of their facility's sign... and then posted photographic proof on her "dogging profile page".  Not to be outdone, several of her fellow doggers made a beeline for the golf center and posted similar shots. Now the family-friendly course is scrambling to "clean things up".  Hopefully legitimate patrons will understand the situation and continue to patronize the center.  Meanwhile, with evidence that dogging is finding its way to the US,  course owners here may want to stay alert to avoid their own dodgy dogging dilemmas.

By the way, in case you're wondering how this fad came to be known as dogging (I certainly was), it seems "walking the dog" was often used with unsuspecting spouses as pretext for clandestine encounters that resulted in cyber-exhibitionism.  As the practice became more popular it came to be known as dogging... and the rest, as they say, is history.

Golf, The Guy's Girl & The Enduring Issue of the Grass Ceiling

For what's basically a recreational activity, the game of golf has an odd knack for inciting controversy and contentiousness.

Do a search for the phrase "golf has a reputation", and you'll see this kind of thing:

"...for being anachronistic in its social attitudes and etiquette."

"...for being a very white sport..."

 "...for being elitist and traditionalist and ladies, in particular, can find it difficult getting involved in the sport."

"...of causing problems in marriages rather than assisting in reconciliation."

"...as a rather snooty sport enjoyed primarily by the upper-class."

"...for being slow, boring, uptight, and for senior citizens or tightly-wound people trying to do deals."

And those are some of the nicer ones.  Golf is a wonderful sport that celebrates nature and unites all kinds of people, but the fact is, the game gets a lot of guff, some of it... admittedly... deserved. 

The controversial, lightning rod side of golf was featured in an Forbes.com post by Meghan Casserly yesterday that suggests women are feeling increased pressure to learn and play golf in order to be more like "one of the guys" ...and have a chance of acceding to upper echelons of the corporate world.  It's an interesting read and one that had lots of people talking tweeting this morning.

Offer of Unlimited Sex Proves an Effective Golf Promotion

It was intended to be a prank, but the victim (in this case Gold Coast Country Club general manager Craig Baldwin) got the last laugh. 

In early December at the course outside of Brisbane, Australia, a creative prankster switched up some letters, turning a roadside billboard that announced Unlimited Golf Fees and a Golf Expo, into one offering Unlimited Sex.

Before long phone calls were coming  expressing shock, curiosity interest in the audacious offer. In the end, Mr. Baldwin seemed rather delighted with the results.

A Variation on the Golf Club Sex Discrimination Theme

I don't imagine Steve Frye is very popular on the fairways of Eagle Vines Vineyards & Golf Club.  At least not on Ladies Day.

Mr. Frye, it turns out, is currently attempting to put the kibosh on "Ladies Day" at Eagle Vines, alleging that when he visited the Napa Valley course  on Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, they were illegally charging male golfers $44 for green and cart fees vs $30 for women... because it was "Ladies Day".

 So, Frye has filed a sex discrimination lawsuit ...against a promotion designed to attract more women to play. The Frye vs. Eagle Vines case is scheduled for a hearing on May 22 in Napa County Superior Court. Read more about the case at NapaValleyRegister.com. 

Though many are dismissing Frye's suit as frivolous, The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has supposedly sent a letter to Eagle Vines saying "possible disciplinary action could be taken against the club’s alcoholic beverage license".

This sets a troubling precedent when you consider that courses offering all kinds of golf promotions... discounts for public safety and military personnel, Junior and Senior discounts, etc... could now be subject to costly lawsuits.  If that happens all golfers may end up paying more for their rounds.  And Steven Frye may wish he'd never attempted to squelch "Ladies Day".

Sex, Booze & Belly Putters: The Power of Paradoxical Intention

The Belly Putter Trend - Photo via PGA.com

Paradoxical Intent is wonderful technique that you've probably used before... whether you know it or not.

It's a form of mind control that seems counterintuitive at first glance because it relies on ... well... a kind of reverse psychology that you impose on yourself.

P.I. can be applied effectively in myriad situations where negative thoughts or persistent fears repeatedly surface... and result in lack of confidence and poor performance.  Does that sound like golf to you?  It does to me and, I sususpect, to many golfers... both amateur and professional... particularly where it really counts: on the putting green.

Negative thoughts, lack of confidence... both seem to play a part in the current belly putter boom on the PGA and European Tours.

When Adam Scott began transitioning to a belly putter it was about building confidence at a time when his his career seemed stymied by self-fulfilling putting insecurities.  Sergio Garcia, famous for periodic putting struggles, once called his Monza Spider a "safety net"and carried it in his bag along with his more conventional Rossa Monaco.

If the aforementioned golfers had used paradoxical intent, they may have been able to conquer their performance anxieties without reaching for the "long stick".

In a recent article on IrishTimes.com, psychologist and author, Padraig O'Morain described P.I. as a technique where you "pretend to want the thing you fear": 

"So if you have a fear of blushing you actually tell yourself before going to a party that you have every intention of blushing, so much so that you are actually going to light up the room on your own. When you do this, the fear is no longer crippling. It seems to me that this technique is based on not suppressing thoughts but allowing them and, instead, having a laugh at them."

Mr. O'Morain talks about the how technique might be applied to problematic behaviors in that can arise in various areas of our lives, including sex, substance abuse... and golf.

"I'm not going to miss!" Photo: Golf Girl Media

Research has shown that a conscious effort to avoid certain thoughts will almost inevitably lead to increased thinking about those thoughts and if the thought is about a behaviour,  increased likelihood of engaging in that behaviour.

I've always found it strange that my putting... and my game in general... almost always seems to be substantially better when I'm sure it's going to be really bad.   When I feel like I haven't been practicing enough, when I'm playing at a difficult course or simply when I'm feeling a little off... I almost always play well.

In retrospect that's not so strange because, in fact, I'm using paradoxical Intent.  Having resigned myself to playing badly, I'm not obsessing about it... an early mistake doesn't devastate me, an OK shot thrills me and I'm just having fun with it.  In a totally counterintuitive way my "cavalier attitude" quickly leads to increased confidence.  That's the power of Paradoxical Intent and i's definitely something to think about... or not.

Denying your Desires Makes Them Stronger

A Naive Wife's Roadside Warning - Golf is Dirty

The Billboard                                           via BroadSheet.ie

The ambiguous admonition was emblazoned on a massive banner, which was then draped over the side of an 18 wheeler.  The truck was then parked in a field overlooking a busy section of Dublin's M50 motorway.

"GOLF IS A PASSPORT FOR A DIRTY WEEKEND AWAY WITH THE LADS. WAKE UP GIRLS... A NAIVE WIFE."

I'm guessing the ad caused a couple of traffic jams... and probably provoked a bit of squabbling  discussion when it came under the gaze of querulous commuting couples with... um... golf issues.  Because on this mobile billboard, golf was front and center... and once again being disparaged as an activity that encourages infidelity.

The "naive wife" who posted the outdoor ad may or may not have known it would jump to the web and immediately go viral, but that's just what happened earlier this month, leaving many to speculate on the author's identity.

Some were saying the message was part of a political campaign ... other's felt it was simply a marketing stunt, but in both of those cases details were scarce, and clearly the most provocative picture presented was that of the demure wife... left at home while her husband and the lads enjoy a dirty weekend in the company of attractive ParMates... taking her revenge on a billboard.

So we'll just leave it at that.

So, What's Your Price... for a Golf Date?

Everyone has a price.

At least that's premise... and the playful predictable tag line... for a new dating site that's kind of like an auction... of sorts.

You may well have heard of it, because though it only officially launched on May 1st,  it's generated a prodigious amount of press.  You see, What'sYOURprice.com, is an online dating website and marketplace where users can buy... or sell... the opportunity of going out on a first date.  >--->

Traditional dating site...

As you can imagine,  reaction to this bold new concept in dating has been... mixed.  Mixed in the sense that the press has generally dismissed the site as a glorified escort service, but at the same time, membership has been growing at a healthy clip.  Since a soft launch in March, WYP has registered over 50,000 users... and and facilitated approximately 15,000 dates.

As it turns out, site founder and CEO Brandon Wade has been an evangelist for the "market driven" approach to dating for quite a while.  An MIT grad who's held executive roles at several Fortune 500 companies, including General Electric and Microsoft, Wade is originally from Singapore and currently based in LasVegas.  This isn't his first foray into the business of "Sugar Daddy dating" either, SeekingArrangement.com, SeekingMillionaire.com and OneGoodCatch.com are all his.  He's even written a book on the topic.

... WhatsYOURPrice.com

With WhatsYOURprice.com however,  Wade is clearly pushing the pay-for-play dating envelope by making the economics an open part of the date selection process... as opposed to an insinuated assumption that's never stated.

The site offers an entertaining juxtaposition between photos that perpetuate the idea of "buying a girlfriend experience" and web copy that takes pains to present a practical, efficient more effective online dating model, including etiquette tips (do not pay or ask anyone for payment prior to meeting for a date, "generous members" are expected to pay for the date - there's no going dutch here). There's even a list of eclectic "ideas for a first date" including: a day at the beach building a sandcastle together, making kites and flying them at a local park and... heading to the driving range, to help your date perfect his/her swing.

And there you have it. Some are calling this daring new dating site a glorified escort service while others insist it's simply an effective, efficient way of leveling the playing field. So what's your take... and if applicable, what's your price for a golf date?