This is an unusual Wednesday. Usually, despite the cold, the rain and the early hour, you’d find students gearing up to play. Those braving the conditions on a day like this would be the core golfers. Kelly Sortino GSB ‘08 would be here, brushing curly hair out of her eyes, and Alex Robertson GSB ‘08, adjusting his red cap. These are the golfers who are on the course no matter what.

But today, they’re instead three miles away on the concrete campus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). A holiday has shifted GSB classes from Monday to Wednesday, the students’ usual day off. On a typical Wednesday, when the weather is good, there are 15 to 20 foursomes of GSB students out on the course. Some of the students, like Robertson and Sortino, will go out because they started when they were eight years old, they love it, and it’s part of who they are. But many GSB students who have little prior experience with golf will also make their way out to learn how to play.

Sarah Garrett GSB ‘08 is one of them. She never even thought about playing golf until she got to the GSB. “Everybody said, ‘You have to play golf. You have to try out the golf course because it’s so beautiful, and as a student you have incredible access and it’s affordable.’” She worked the for-profit sector over the summer and regretted not being able to participate in the golf activities organized by her company. She decided to make lessons a priority. In the fall she took a beginner golf class filled with mostly GSB students who, like her, wanted to get in the game.

The affinity that GSB students have for golf is not purely recreational, although their motivations are less self-serving than those outside of golf and business might believe. For many, the fact that GSB students have Wednesdays off from classes seems to be an implicit encouragement to pursue golf. This creates a discomfiting picture of young students eager to conform to the rich golfing businessman stereotype, eager to break into those elitist networks.

Robertson, co-president of the GSB Student Golf Club, finds new students coming to the club to forward their careers. “It’s because they’re here, they know — they think two things: that business revolves around golf or golf revolves around business.”

The reality is less straightforward. Rukaiyah Adams GSB ‘08, who also took her first golf class in the fall, says that she’s just trying to eliminate as many barriers as possible. The students at the GSB from more privileged backgrounds have all sorts of connections and skills that help them in the business world. Golf is just one of these, and access to it can help. “It’s just another tool,” Adams says. “I thought, ‘Why not?’”

There are some practical reasons why golf goes well with business. It is a sport that lends itself to socializing. Sortino says, “I hit the ball 10 percent of the time, and the other 90 percent I’m talking to the people around me, and I’m getting to know them better.” Spending time with someone on the green gives you a sense of their character — how they react when things go wrong, and how they respond under pressure.

Despite these advantages, the caricature associated with the sport can be uncomfortable to new players. “Close your eyes,” Robertson says. “You’re walking down the street and you see a golfer. He’s got khakis on, a vibrantly colored polo, a slight golfer’s gut, short hair, a nice polo cap and pink socks.” What person could fit in that outfit but an older white man?

There is a historical basis for this image. Until 1961, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) had a clause stating that “Membership in the PGA shall be limited to members of the Caucasian race.” Even after that codified barrier was lifted, logistical barriers continued to hinder diversification of the sport. A survey of professional courses by USA Today found that the average initiation fee for golf course membership was nearly $50,000, limiting those who have access to relatively few very rich people.

Yet the worlds of golf and business are beginning to diversify. At Stanford’s GSB, there is also a move towards diversity. In the MBA class of 2009, women make up 38 percent of the class, six percentage points more than in 2008. There is also an increase in minority students — in the class of 2008, one in six students was a member of a minority group; in 2009, it’s close to one in every four. These numbers illustrate a larger trend across the country in which women and minorities are becoming more and more of a presence in the business world.

These changes at the GSB can be seen on the green. For Jim Miller, who has been a Stanford golf instructor for 14 years, the diversity of his students is a big reason he loves being at Stanford. “We’re teaching students from all over the world, many of whom have had little or no access previously.”

Garrett found that to be true when she took her beginning golf class. “We’re all coming from completely different backgrounds and want to learn it for similar reasons and so there’s that sense of shared experience.”

One reason why the Stanford course attracts such a diverse group is its accessibility. The course is right on campus and costs only $20 a round, removing the usual access barriers. The course’s encouragement of beginners and large selection of classes can also be an important entry point. Either you learn as a kid, or you learn in graduate school. Beyond that, opportunities to learn golf are hard to find.

The Stanford course also has a history of diversity. It has been played by some of the best minority players in the country, including Tom Watson, Tiger Woods and now Michelle Wie ‘11.

Woods certainly made golf visible to minority athletes. According to Adams, Woods’ major impact was highlighting how much fun the sport was. She sees higher minority participation in golf as part of a shift in what people consider to be fun, one occurring among white students and minority students alike. “The Black Business Students Association must have 25 or more non-black students in it,” she says. “Everyone’s really exploring and trying to do things that help us understand each other better.”

Despite these positive trends, national efforts to make golf instruction and membership more accessible have been slow. Although the old guard is not actively resisting, it is slow to recognize the need for changes in the sport to allow for new people. Golfing with a group of beginners at Stanford, Garrett has occasionally felt the annoyance of a group of older men stuck behind them. “There’s a sense of ‘What are these kids who don’t know what they’re doing playing out here?’”

Yet even some of the more experienced golfers are breaking the demographic stereotype. “People don’t look at me and see a typical golfer,” Sortino says, wearing a red vest and carrying a bag full of binders and fortune cookies. She grew up in Illinois, where her family played on the local course. They didn’t have country club memberships, and Sortino didn’t have private lessons. Instead, she learned by reading books and watching television. Sortino is quite a golfer — she played all through high school and then on Princeton’s varsity team for two years before ending up at the GSB.

Her background in golf has been advantageous for her business career, especially in the job search. “Twenty minutes of our interview will be spent talking about golf. For women who don’t have any kind of background or interest in it, there’s just not that conversation.” When she turned down one job, the company actually asked her to reconsider because they really needed her for its golf team.

Although Garrett has just begun, she expects in the next few years to continue the sport as she enters into the work world. “I’m very much a beginner, but I really enjoy the sport in all aspects,” she says. “I hope that I’m good enough when I leave here to able to use it in business in the next few years.”

On the course, the sun is starting to rise, the morning frost is melting, and the old-timers head out to start their Wednesday games. Next year, with the intensity of their first year of business school behind them, the uncommonly diverse MBA students of 2009 might head out to the green. Among them, people who have never had a chance to see a course might find out why the core players keep coming back. They might get a sense of the fun of the sport.

They will soon come onto the ninth hole, Sortino’s favorite. “You can see San Francisco, you can almost see Oakland, you see Portola Valley, and the hills, it’s just — it’s stunning. That image will be implanted in my brain forever.”