Golf officials ban sexy caddy escort service

Models have been banned from providing a sexy caddy escort service by golf officials who accused them of damaging the reputation of the sport.

Eye Candy Caddies offers an all-female caddy service by providing models to help rake bunkers, man competition holes, help with registration and "provide light banter".

The company, based in Eastcote, north-west London, has around 150 young women on its books, and they are available for golfers for £230 for a round.

Their online profiles show some provocatively dressed in underwear and feature their answers to questions on their favourite music, holiday destination and body part.

But their presence on the fairways prompted objections from purists of the sport who claim they devalue the reputation of golf.

Leaderboard Golf, which owns and operates courses including Chart Hills in Biddenden, Kent, Dale Hill in Wadhurst, East Sussex, Sandford Springs in Kingsclere, Hants, and the Oxfordshire in Oxford, enforced an immediate ban on members bringing the caddies on to its courses.

The ban follows concerns by both male and female club members and what Leaderboard claims was the unauthorised use of its flagship course, the Oxfordshire, on the Eye Candy Caddies website.

A Leaderboard spokesman said: "With golf having been shortlisted to become an Olympic sport, anyone who seriously cares about the development of the game should work to ensure it is as professional, inclusive and culturally inoffensive as any other major sport.

"We are not being killjoys in objecting to a service which invites men to select from a photo menu of young women, often pictured in their underwear, who are to be judged according to the merits of their responses to questions such as 'What is your favourite body part'.

"And we utterly refute any suggestion that this provides an inroad into the sport for women seriously interested in golf.

"Exploiting outmoded notions of golf as a male bastion is not 'just a bit of fun'.

"It damages the reputation of the sport as a whole as well as its appeal to members of the younger generation of either sex.

"We hope other courses in the UK will follow our example."

Former model Sarah Stacey, 43, managing director of Eye Candy Caddies, said they were "being persecuted for being good looking" and accused Leaderboard officials of being killjoys.

Ms Stacey, who founded the business five years ago, said: "We are there to put a smile on the faces of people, and the girls' presence helps raise extra money for charities and societies.

"We are not interfering with the more serious side of golf. We are not qualified to caddy for competitions, we don't offer neck and shoulder massages and the girls do not fraternise with golfers.

"Just because we happen to be good looking, people seem to be derogatory towards us. The girls are very professional, very well bred people who have their own boyfriends and are not interested in older men.

"If some people deem it appropriate to put us down, then that's up to them. But it's not going to stop us. I run a professional bona fide business and it will continue."