Golf Politics: The Social Role of the Game in the United States and Beyond

IRIS: In your blog on golf and politics, you mentioned the comments of Hank Haney – Tiger Wood’s former coach – which sparked controversy as he seemed to ignore that a major tournament in women’s golf was going to occur and guessed that a “Lee” would win it. This anecdote tackles two important themes in sports and politics: racism and sexism. How is the state of gender equality in golf, compared to other sports? Have you witnessed any particular improvements within the last one or two decades?

ORIN STARN: Golf has a peculiar history in relation to gender equality. It was one of the first sports that women were allowed to play, along with tennis, croquet and other more « lady-like » games, in the 19th century, at a time when women were still banned from more « manly » sports, like football and wrestling. It was mostly upper-class white women, to be sure, and yet it was still a change from the past, when sports were viewed entirely as the province of men. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) was the first women’s professional league in any sport, decades ahead of the Women National Basketball Association (WNBA) or women’s soccer leagues. It featured great stars like Babe Didriksen Zaharia, one of the first celebrity female athletes of the 20th century, a precursor to modern figures like Serena Williams and Marta.

But golf has also been full of sexism and discrimination. Augusta National did not allow female members until about ten years ago, despite protests by women’s groups. What many experts view as the top course in the United States (US), Pine Valley, still doesn’t allow female members, today, in 2020. There is still a boy’s club flavour to groups, like the United States Golf Association (USGA), and prize money is far higher on the PGA than the LPGA. When Hank Haney, a very influential figure in the golf world, joked about not even knowing that the U.S. Women’s Open was coming up, it threw into relief the failure still to take the women’s game seriously. There’s still a long way to go in golf, as in virtually all sports, to anything like real gender equality…