An end to gender-exclusive golf?

Posted at 12:07 PM on April 5, 2010 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

If you play in men's golf tournaments, the end of a gender-specific tournament may be coming to an end.

A federal judge in Boston has ruled that a woman suffered discrimination when a public golf course refused to let her play in a men's tournament. Says the New York Times:

Gorton's ruling sent a strong message to the overseers of public golf courses. In effect, it said that government-financed tournaments should allow women to play with men at men's tournaments and vice versa.

Gorton observed that the town of Dennis and the golf officials it employed made "a repeated plea for a 'separate but equal' analysis, that is, that the club had men's-only and women's-only tournaments on weekends."

That did not wash, the judge said, because "men and women were afforded unequal playing opportunities" at Dennis Pines, with 10 days of tournament play for men compared with two days for women.

The article quotes the judge saying his ruling does not require all public courses to conduct only coed tournaments, but it's hard to see how it doesn't.

The judge's ruling has not yet been posted online.

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Comments (8)

I never golf with women. Gross.

Posted by Aaron | April 5, 2010 12:40 PM

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This reminds me of the editorial about the Wheaties Fuel being gender biased towards males.
Personally, I find it difficult to be a young, white, male when there are so many things on TV, Newspapers, and the Internet that are geared towards helping minorities, blacks, women, foreigners, etc.
I think the line has to be drawn; there can be men's leagues and women's leagues and organizations that only allow males or females. I don't think of it as discriminatory, but more as an opportunity.
People need to chill out and concentrate on real issues- like PETA, poverty, and education.

Posted by Ben Chorn | April 5, 2010 12:48 PM

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For every elite woman athlete this ruling helps to provide "equal playing opportunity", I bet there are dozens of women who have now lost the opportunity to compete with their peers in women-only events without the added pressure of also competing against men.

Posted by Bismuth | April 5, 2010 1:11 PM

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I echo Ben's comments - I, too, find my life difficult on a daily basis, as newspapers, television, movies, periodicals, and the internet contain so very little content designed to appeal to me, the white American male 18-35.

I concur that a line must be drawn; for instance, there can be black leagues and white leagues, and organizations that only allow blacks or whites. I don't think of it as discriminatory, but more of an opportunity.

You know, separate but equal. Hey, that's catchy.

Posted by teej | April 5, 2010 1:30 PM

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I think the likelihood of my membership to Curve's getting approved just increased!

Posted by Michael | April 5, 2010 1:52 PM

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I'm sorry, I'm a little slow today. You folks are looking for whites-only things?

Posted by Bob Collins | April 5, 2010 2:01 PM

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I see an opportunity for colleges to save some money using this to negate title 9.

Don't offer men's or women's sports. Simply offer football, basketball, volleyball, etc. Anyone who wants a scholarship must earn it by competing against fellow athletes (regardless of gender) on an equal footing.

Posted by kennedy | April 5, 2010 3:36 PM

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That did not wash, the judge said, because "men and women were afforded unequal playing opportunities" at Dennis Pines, with 10 days of tournament play for men compared with two days for women.

I would think the solution to this would have been for the Golf officials to insure that there are the same number of tournament days for both men and women. This could be accomplished by a mix of men's, women's and mixed tournaments. But of course that may no longer be an option since they tried to get the judge to buy the idea that 10 = 2.

Posted by JackU | April 6, 2010 9:37 AM

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