There’s a growing sentiment among the American public that “PE,” AKA Private Equity, is ruining everything. Restaurants. Movies. Video games. The housing market. Everything is getting worse yet somehow more expensive. Chipotle sucks now. Every movie is a remake or some superhero nonsense. All decisions at these privately-owned companies feel like they are being made by a bunch of old dudes in suits sitting in a boardroom wondering how they can extract another dollar out of the consumer, as opposed to wondering what the consumer might actually want.
This is now happening at private golf clubs, too. Tweeth Mitchell, a favorite follow and a friend (I’ve literally hung out with him in real life), posted an email members received at his club last week, and it’s the most “PE-coded” email we’ve ever read. Turns out, as Tweeth later pointed out to numerous people in the replies, the club was bought by a large golf hospitality management company, which is backed by a private equity company, just a few years ago:
Got this email from my club (names redacted cause I don't need y'all flaming anyone on my behalf) a few days ago. This fucking sucks. I can't understand how this is a line in the sand ANY golf club that cares about its members would ever draw.
You guys know how I feel about… pic.twitter.com/urSsntrDS3
— Tweeth Mitchell (@tweeth_mitchell) July 12, 2026
Among the stupidest, most first-world golf problems, this ranks at the very top of the list. “I can’t walk at my private club.” Somebody call the wahmbulance.
BUT, it is a very legitimate gripe, especially at Tweeth’s club, which does not have a caddie program. At clubs that do, it’s an understandable feature, as they want you to take a caddie, especially in the mornings, to keep the caddie program healthy and encourage walking. At Tweeth’s club, they now seem to be actively discouraging it, all the name of a few extra bucks on cart fees.
Tweeth and his group of guys love to walk, just ask them. I actually joined them for a walk at 7 a.m. a few months ago on a Saturday. It was delightful. We zipped around on the front and then ran into a log jam of groups in carts that were jammed in on the 10th tee as we made the turn. One of the biggest myths in golf is that walkers slow the course down. When, in fact, the people who walk properly by going straight to their own ball and being ready when it’s their turn, will almost always play just as fast or quicker than a foursome in carts.
The worst part about this is that there are ways around it for the hardcore walker, yet those are also being discouraged by the club, according to Tweeth. Couldn’t you just pay the cart fee and walk anyway? Nope. Tweeth says even he and his small minority of walkers offered to pay a yearly “walking pass” fee. The club balked at that, too.
It is, quite simply, a way to extract a few more dollars out of the members, which, in fairness, the club was very up front about in the email. It does not make it any less gross, though, especially when you consider that Tweeth’s dues were RAISED by 40 percent a few years back. As you might imagine, the same time the club was acquired by new “management.”
The solution? Unfortunately, join somewhere else, somewhere far more expensive and not owned by people who don’t know or care what golfers really want or like. That is out of the question for guys like Tweeth, though. If we could all belong to a place that barely gets any play and you can stroll up to at any time of the day and carry your own bag and never see another golfer, we would.
Or, you go the difficult route, which is to stage some sort of protest, an idea that has been floated:
I told them we should all sign up for the Saturday game and just sit in the clubhouse instead of taking our tee times
— Tweeth Mitchell (@tweeth_mitchell) July 12, 2026
It’s worth a shot, no? As silly as it sounds, taking an action such as this sometimes is the only thing that gets the attention of the powers that be. The challenge would be getting enough people to actually go through with it.
But most likely, Tweeth and his merry band of walkers will suffer the consequences of his club being “PE-backed.” You’ll eat the Chipotle slop. You’ll see Avengers 7. And you will sit in the cart, and you will like it. That’ll be an extra $27, too, sir.
Do you have a “stupid” golf problem? A question you’re too ashamed to ask your close friends? A conundrum that needs to be talked out in a public forum? We’re here to help. If you have etiquette-related inquiries or just want to know how to handle some of the unique on- or off-course situations we all find ourselves in, please let us know. You can email me ([email protected]) or send me a DM on Twitter/X (@Cpowers14) or on Instagram (@cpthreeve).
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
