“The issue isn’t any golfer being responsible for his own negligence,” Mr. Catalli said. “The issue is ClubCorp saying we need to be responsible for their negligence.”

Neither Kimberly King, senior associate counsel at ClubCorp, nor the company’s spokeswoman, Patty Jerde, would discuss the matter by phone. In an email, Ms. Jerde defended the policy, equating the risk that golfers take to those assumed by a skier.

“Similar to other hosts of recreational sites (e.g., ski resorts), we use an assumption of risk policy so that our members and guests can understand their own personal responsibility,” she wrote. “We believe we’ve struck a fair balance between offering a great recreational experience and the associated risks assumed with the enjoyment of our facilities.”

In an email to Mr. Catalli, Ms. King said the company would not change its language and compared its waiver to ones she had signed for bike rides, summer camp for her children and bounce houses.

But when using entertainment equipment, like a trampoline or a bounce house, parents and children are required to acknowledge lengthy agreements before being allowed to participate. It’s clear that dozens of children bouncing on a trampoline carries risk of injury. But even those agreements do not always hold up in instances of negligence by the company, lawyers said.

Or consider an ice-skating rink, where a waiver would be required. If a skater gets hurt, the skater has waived liability against the owner of the rink. If a skater hurts someone else, the skater is still liable.

“If you injure someone else, that liability is now part of your personal liability coverage,” said Scott Teller, executive vice president at Chubb, the insurance company, adding that a lawsuit could be financially devastating. “It only takes one single liability event like that to impact your financial well-being.”