December 30, 2002
TAKE THE L OUT OF LPGA:
The Hole Truth: There will never be fair play on Augusta's fairways until women are allowed to join (Karen DeCrow, 12/18/02, Syracuse New Times)After 17 years in this newspaper and without a single incident of interference from management, I am taking the unprecedented step of writing two consecutive columns on the same subject. The reason is not a burning desire to play golf in Georgia. The reason is not that this is the most important issue in the gender-equality debate. The reason is not that a little levity goes a long way in counteracting the horrors on the non-sports pages of the papers: impending war, deaths in the Middle East, a tanking economy.The reason is that sometimes, in the struggle for human rights, one does not pick the issues. The issues find you. The symbolism of Augusta, the Masters and Hootie cannot be qualified. If Augusta can keep out women, with the implied blessing of CBS and of the golf establishment, this sends a message to the world about the United States. [...]
Typing here, in my imaginary green burqa, may I suggest that when Augusta lets in women--and, sooner or later, they will--we will not tout it as the boys having lost to the girls. We can call it what it will deserve to be called: the place for great golfers.
The problem with this whole Augusta flap is not that Howell Raines and Ms DeCrow are asking for too much, but that they're asking for so little. The real outrage is that the pro tours themselves are still gender segregated. The LPGA and PGA should be combined into one tour where men and women compete on an equal footing. Then we can truly call the Unified PGA Tour "the place for great golfers". Posted by Orrin Judd at December 30, 2002 9:19 PM
I beleive I heard on NPR that a woman had recently qualified or participated in a PGA match.
Posted by: some random person at December 30, 2002 10:26 PMYes, a Connecticut woman PGA club pro, Suzy Whaley, won the PGA Sectional title
, qualifying for next year's Hartford Open. She played from the ladies tees in the state tourney, but she'll have to hit from the big tees.
Followed to its extreme, Orrin, your proposal would lock women out of most competitive sports due to their smaller and less muscular frames.
Are we better with "separate but equal" (or at least separate on the pro level) sports or with a 96% male coed sports motif? I'd opt for the former.
And this will of course lead to more charges of sexism as many women golfers fail to match up to the men.There is a reason the "ladie's tee" is several feet in front of the mens tee.
Posted by: Ms. Dswh X Ppeteff at December 31, 2002 7:40 AMBrilliant refutation of Ms. DeCrow's "human rights" rhetoric, Orrin.
Posted by: pj at December 31, 2002 8:33 AM