Explaining the Term 'Golf Widow'
The 1980 reference book Davies' Dictionary of Golfing Terms (affiliate link) defines "golf widow" succinctly: "A woman whose husband neglects her for golf."
That definition is a good example of how "golf widow" used to be an exclusively gendered term: it was applied only to wives, never to husbands. That is no longer the case, as many more women play golf today than did at the time of the definitions and excerpts quoted above and to follow. Today, the term "golf widow" can apply to any woman or man, any wife or husband, any boyfriend or girlfriend, whose partner is an avid golfer while they are not. (The term "golf widower" would have been used for a man, and can still be today, as widow/widower were then and often still are today used for women/men.)
In 1937, the Atlanta Journal newspaper ran a full-page spread in its "women's pages" about the plight of local golf widows. "Hark to the golf widow," the large, main headline declared, followed by the sub-head, "What to do if you find yourself a golf widow told by Atlanta wives suffering from such bereavement".
And the in-depth article explored just that: How to pass the time while one's spouse was on the golf course. And how were "Atlanta wives suffering from such bereavement" coping? The article reported: "Mrs. Berrien Moore Jr. knits. Mrs. Scott Hudson Jr. catches up on her correspondence and Mrs. Cliff Eley goes calling. Mrs. Dave Black collects three other golf widows and they all play bridge."
A writer for a South Carolina newspaper in 1964 wrote that a "woman who has been golf-widowed for a great many years usually can be spotted the easiest. She has a look of infinite patience tempered with great experience at warming over cold suppers. When she stumbles over golf shoes, golf gloves, golf bags, golf clubs, golf scorecards, golf books ... cluttered in the hall closet and overflowing into the hall, her eyes do not spark as they once did." The author's byline identified her as a golf widow.
The term appears to have come into common usage is the latter part of the 1800s. The illustration that appears on this page is taken from an 1890 Badminton Golf issue that appeared early in the year. Later in 1890, a poem titled "The Golf-Widow's Lament" was printed in newspapers all across England.
More terms defined:
- What it means to 'ham-and-egg' it on the golf course
- What you don't want to be a 'pigeon' in golf
- What is a 'sucker pin'?
Davies, Peter. Davies' Dictionary of Golfing Terms, 1980, Simon and Schuster.
Gloucester (England) Citizen. "The Golf-Widow's Lament," October 3, 1890.
Hutchinson, Horace G. Golf, The Badminton Library, 1893, Longmans Green and Co.
Jones, Susan Baker. "Hark to the Golf Widow," The Atlanta (Ga.) Journal, April 25, 1937.
McNeely, Patricia. "She Remembers When Green Was a Color," The (Columbia, S.C.) State, July 22, 1964.
