Baby not on board: mom says golf course out of bounds for penalizing her, infant son

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This article was published 18/08/2023 (774 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Lorette woman is teed off after she was kicked off a city-area golf course Thursday for having a young spectator along for the ride in her cart.

The observer was her seven-month-old son Madden, who doesn’t appear particularly interested in the game at this point.

Heather Worth told the Free Press Friday that although clubhouse staff and the course marshal at Southside Golf Course in Grande Point were aware she had a baby with her, the first-tee starter told her she couldn’t play because her son represented a liability risk.

She and her playing partner, a member of Southside’s ladies league, were directed back to the clubhouse to obtain a refund.

“He’s under a golf cart, with a roof, in an infant carrier car seat with a canopy,” Worth, 28, said.

“To me, the odds of him getting hit by a golf ball are pretty low, in comparison to him getting hit by a foul ball at a baseball diamond. Yet, he’s allowed to be there. Or a rogue puck at a hockey rink — he’s allowed to be there. I don’t understand why he can’t be at a golf course that I’m paying to be at.

Individual courses make their own rules, Golf Manitoba’s Jared Ladobruk told the Free Press in a statement.

“We have spoken with the management of Southside Golf Course regarding the incident,” said the executive director of the non-profit organization representing 70 clubs and leagues in the province.

“In the absence of a public order or a bylaw, a golf course, public or private, can mandate their own health and safety regulations.”

Bel Acres, a semi-private course just north of the city in the RM of Rosser, has run into the same situation a few times but has permitted golfers to continue playing, so long as they understand their responsibility to care for the child on the course.

“We get that happening here every once in a while,” said club GM Robin Henderson.

“In the absence of a public order or a bylaw, a golf course, public or private, can mandate their own health and safety regulations.”–Jared Ladobruk

“Usually it would be a husband is going golfing and his wife would come along and just ride along and have the baby so she’d be basically 100 per cent taking care of the child.

“We do allow (infants to accompany a solo golfer). We do let the people know that there are other people out there, you’ve got to make sure that you take care of the child and keep (the noise) down as best as possible. But on the other hand, you’ve also got people showing up here with music on their golf carts now.”

Bel Acres, like many courses — private, semi-private and public — allow, and even encourage in some cases, streaming music while playing golf, so noise is generally not a concern.

Worth has played golf for the last five years but had to take a break while on maternity leave. She’s tried getting her game back this summer by playing a few weekday rounds while her son tags along for the ride, all of which have been completed without an issue at other courses, she said.

She tries to schedule her rounds with Madden’s nap times and goes out only during non-peak hours to limit the chances that her son could be a disturbance to others.

She said she hasn’t heard from anyone at the course since she was asked to leave Thursday and doesn’t intend to play there again.

“It’s just frustrating, because the sport has been, historically, so sexist.”–Heather Worth

“It’s just frustrating, because the sport has been, historically, so sexist,” Worth said. “And they’re trying to change that and make it so that everybody is as part of the sport as men.

“(Going forward) I might call ahead of time to ask if I need to sign any forms when I get there or (if) I can bring him, because it was kind of discouraging packing him up, get everything ready and get there just to turn around and go home.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca