The following column originally appeared in The Pilot on Jan. 21.

The women of the Sandhills are busy, firming up plans for the new golfing year. The associations have elected officers, presented tournament agendas and shopped for new golf outfits that will dazzle the opposition.

But no matter how hard she’s worked on her game, how skillfully she has coordinated that striking outfit, the average woman golfer will find it hard to play more than a couple of rounds in the company of men this year.

I don’t know why, exactly, but a lot of guys at my club don’t like to play golf with women. Not even with their wives. Especially with their wives.

OK, so I do know why. Everybody has his favorite foursome and that’s understandable. But I’m not talking about breaking up the old gang just to spend four hours with the wife. I’m talking about the occasional Sunday afternoon or the mixed tournaments that are part of the social life of a club.

I know men who love to play tournament golf and participate in all the men’s events at the club, but absolutely refuse to join in for a Three Kings and a Queen affair or anything else that includes women

My experience has been that most of the men could learn a few things from the women. The women I’ve been paired with don’t take up time on the tees and between shots telling old jokes. They don’t walk off yardage on a course they’ve been playing three times a week for 20 years, or spend five minutes lining up a putt from five different directions. And, while they don’t hit the ball as far as the men, they don’t spend nearly as much time looking for stray shots, either.

Some of the most pleasurable tournament rounds I’ve played have come with women on the team. For the most part, it’s a more relaxed atmosphere, the golf etiquette is much better, and the women are more astute regarding the rules of the game.

I’ve been playing golf for 42 years and have played with every imaginable character. Along the way, I’ve encountered all the stereotypes. The good, the bad and very ugly. And most of the very ugly have been men.

According to my BW, though, women can have their catty moments. She recalls playing in a tournament, taking out one of those little plastic ball markers and pressing it into the green behind her ball.

"You can’t do that," reprimanded one of the other women.

"Why not?" the BW asked.

"Because it’s against the rules to test the greens," the woman haughtily replied.

Another time, another tournament. This one’s an invitational and the women have played seven or eight holes when they come to this little downhill par-3. There’s the usual process of club selection and the first to tee off tosses some grass up to check the breeze.

"What’s the wind doing?" the BW asks.

The lady on the tee gives her a snooty look and says, "Throw up your own grass."

This happened in a casual interclub match in which gimme putts were allowed. The BW was keeping the card for the two women in the other cart and she kept getting some questionable scores from one of them. Finally, she decided to call her on it.

"Are you sure you had a five there?"

"Oh yes," the woman replied.

"Let’s see," the BW said, trying to be diplomatic. "You were on in three, left your first putt short, then missed that one. Right?"

"That’s right," the woman happily agreed. "But the last one was in the leather. It was a gimme."

She thought if the putt was a gimme, it didn’t count. So, not counting the kickback, she had made five.

Don’t you love it? Sometimes the game is more fun than golf.