Paxman On Wentworth: "The members’ predicament is hardly up there with the fate of Aleppo."

The "row" between members of Wentworth and their new Chinese owner has reached a point of absurdity, with the Telegraph finding a photo of the heiress to Wentworth posing for a photo with Donald Trump. This was after a "secret meeting" a while back, apparently making Dr. Chanchai Ruayrungruan's purchase of the fabled club somehow tainted.

But Jeremy Paxman has taken to the pages of the Financial Times to say enough of the tears for the Wentworth members. As he notes, this is not worth the attention the saga has received (with suggestions of deteriorating China-Great Britain relations), and that there is a broader issue at play here: the death of club membership.

So we come to the heart of the problem. The problem is not golf itself — a tiresome, very hard game I have tried (and failed) to play — but many of the venues where it takes place. We are all working too hard to devote hours to wandering about after a small white ball. That aggravates the fact that club bars are full of old people convinced the country’s been going to the dogs since spats fell out of fashion.

Any dullard can tell you of the sport’s origins with savages in “see you Jimmy” bonnets clattering a pebble about the coast of Fife. None of them would be allowed through the doors of many clubs now.

And he offers this intriguing thought on the fate of the club membership.

Golf is succumbing to the phenomenon identified by Robert Putnam, the US political scientist, 20 years ago in Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. Britain, too, is an increasingly atomised society — made up of individuals rather than groups, consumers rather than members, promiscuous in where we place our custom.