大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Golf is supposed to be a sport for everyone 鈥� so why, in the professional game, do women still struggle for equality?

Golf is supposed to be a sport for everyone 鈥� so why, in the professional game, do women still struggle for equality?

16 July 2018

The world’s best male golfers are descending on Carnoustie for the The Open.
The Women’s British Open follows a fortnight later.

Though there remains some way to go before financial equality is achieved between male and female golfers, there has been progress in equalising the standing of female players and their tournaments relative to their male counterparts.

Royal and Ancient Golf Club chief: golf ‘has to change’

Wake-Robin Golf Club, in Washington DC, was founded in 1937 and is the oldest African American women’s golf club in the USA.

The club was formed during the era of racial segregation and its members pushed for the desegregation of public courses. Instead, their course was built on an abandoned rubbish dump.

“They had to play over glass bottles and cans,” explained club chaplain Elizabeth Brabble. “It’s not so bad that the course was put on a trash dump. But, as far as [the authorities at the time] were concerned, we were trash — so that’s all we ‘deserved’.”

That members were female only added to the discrimination the club faced.

Now celebrating its 80th anniversary, Wake-Robin Golf Club is thriving and promotes inclusiveness and diversity in women’s golf.

When professional golfer Anya Alvarez was younger, she had to deal with male prejudice whenever she played golf.

Guys didn鈥檛 want to play with me because I was a girl.

Anya Alvarez

Her golf professional father always encouraged Anya to pursue the game as far as she wanted to take it, but negative body language and comments like “you’re not bad... for a girl” from other men gave her the impression that there were limits on how good you could get if you are female.

The landscape has changed since then, however. The Augusta course in America – which once said it would never host a women’s event – is now a venue for matches involving young female golfers.

“It’s a great thing for girls to show that they are welcomed in a game that was at first not very welcoming to them.”

Women鈥檚 golf pioneer who faced death threats

African American golfers were still subject to discrimination in the 1960s, which made Renee Powell an even more important pioneer in the sport.

She was there in the heart of racism and discrimination

Elizabeth Brabble

Renee joined the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour in 1967. She was only the second African American woman to play golf professionally.

She received death threats and was so shaken the first time that she phoned her parents for advice.

When they elected not to summon her home, Renee came to the conclusion that the risk wasn’t great enough to give up her dream career.

Her involvement on the LPGA tour until 1980 resulted in a lot of respect from within the African American community, who admired the way Renee dealt with the cruelty she experienced.

(womensgolfjournal.com)

Scottish golfer Hazel MacGarvie hails from the golfing town of Troon and has had a passion for the sport since she was little.

Despite the resistance of some well-known golf clubs to the idea of female members, Hazel has enjoyed a more positive experience.

“There are a lot of female members at my golf course who are all really supportive.”

Hazel sees the changes coming through in tournament golf and believes that the European Championships – where men and women play alongside each other, vying for a similar prize pot – is a great thing.

“In the past there have probably been more opportunities for male golfers but I think that’s leveling out now.”