CLUBHOUSE DRESS-CODE VIOLATION FRACAS
DISPUTE OVER DENIM TURNS NASTY
AT POSH BOSTON GOLF CLUB
FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE NEWSPAPER
Hollywood stars
routinely sport jeans on the red carpet. President Obama and White
House staffers occasionally wear denim in the Oval Office.
But
if you want to stay out of the local police blotter, don’t even think
about wearing jeans into the clubhouse at posh Weston Golf Club, Massachusetts.
What began on a Saturday night in September as
an attempt by the Weston GC president to enforce the dress code among a
large group of members and guests having drinks in the clubhouse bar
escalated into a scene fit for reality television.
The resulting verbal
altercation was so intense police were called to defuse the situation.
The club’s directors conducted an
investigation into alleged dress code violations with all the
seriousness of a grand jury, eventually handing out three-month
suspensions to 10 members. The uproar triggered such a backlash the
president resigned.
The episode offers a window into the
culture of private clubs, where decorum and etiquette are essential to a
sense of sanctuary. Expectations of refinement and civility are
codified in rules that govern seemingly every aspect of behavior, from
dress, to language, to personal comportment.
An invitation-only club set on 104 wooded acres, Weston
GC charges a $45,000 initiation (joining) fee — about the midrange for such clubs
— and features a membership of wealthy, powerful executives. The club
is so protective of its privacy that two years ago it hired a police
detail to keep cyclists off the picturesque private road it shares with
several dozen residential properties.
And
like other private clubs, Weston Golf Club has an extensive dress code policy,
with a ban on denim at the top of the list of forbidden clothing.
Whether $50 dungarees or $200 designer jeans, blue denim of any kind is
forbidden. The one exception: female members can wear “neat, not torn,
white denim.”
It’s unclear what kind of
denim people in the group were wearing that September night, but as
Stephen and Charlotte Weeple walked toward the clubhouse around 10:45
p.m, they were intercepted by club president Tom Ferry.
The Weeples are
not members but they and other guests were meeting Weston GC members for
a nightcap in the clubhouse bar.
Ferry
believed the Weeples were in violation of the dress code and used
profane language to tell them jeans are not allowed on the grounds,
according to a letter the couple wrote to the club’s directors.
Charlotte
Weeple declined to comment, but in her letter to the board, obtained by
The Boston Globe, she said she thought Ferry was joking until he called
her derogatory names, igniting an animated shouting match between her
husband and Ferry.
At 10:58, Weston police received a 911 call reporting a fist fight in progress.
“When
I arrived, I observed two men . . . engaged in a loud, verbal
argument,” patrolman Joseph Kozowyk wrote in his report, noting that
“neither man had any signs of a physical altercation.”
The incident broke up when the Weeples left Weston GC without joining their friends inside.
Afterward,
though, Charlotte Weeple complained to the club’s directors about her
treatment and insisted that neither she nor her husband was wearing
jeans.
Moreover, Weeple bristled at the implication she did not know the
rules of proper attire.
“Having grown up
and spent much of my life in golf clubs around Scotland and officers’
clubs in the military, I am fully aware and respectful of dress code and
etiquette,” Weeple wrote.
Within
days of the incident Ferry volunteered to take a one-month suspension.
But after a number of other members organized a petition calling for a
clubwide meeting, Ferry resigned as president in early November. He
issued a contrite statement to the Globe in which he apologised for his
behavior that night.
“I am sorry that the
ongoing discord over enforcement of the club’s policies has reached such
an embarrassing level,” said Ferry, who is chief executive of Curaspan
Health Group Inc., a software company. “Most importantly I wish
to repeat publicly the apology I gave to the people with whom I
interacted outside of the club that night. It was wrong of me to have
spoken that way, I have no excuse, and I sincerely regret having done
so.”
Meanwhile, the Weston GC directors
began their own investigation a week after the incident, having learned
that others in the group the Weeples planned to join, including club
members, also were wearing jeans that night.
The board sought interviews
with eight couples and subsequently suspended five couples for three
months, for either wearing jeans or being involved in dress code
violations.
The 10 members still owe club fees during their suspension.
In
a letter they wrote to the club’s board, obtained by the Globe, the
five couples said, “we are sorry and apologize if we did not adequately
convey our remorse in our interviews.”
“One
thing we can promise you is that this group does not lack integrity,”
they added. “We are all parents of young children (15 in total) and you
can be sure that conversations concerning the imperativeness of
kindness, truthfulness, respect, honesty, humility and accountability
fill our homes each day.”
All five couples declined interview requests or did not respond to media messages seeking comment.
The
club did hold a general membership meeting in early November, but by
then Ferry had resigned and temperatures inside the clubhouse had
cooled. The directors also have not made any changes to the club’s dress
code, or their disciplinary measures, as a result of the meeting.
Through
a spokeswoman, Weston GC acknowledged that “an effort to enforce club
rules got out of hand” but defended the purpose of regulations on
attire.
“The dress code is meant to encourage people to present
themselves in ways that engender pride in the club,” said the
spokeswoman, Karen Schwartzman.
Labels: GOLF NEW
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Wednesday, November 19, 2014
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