Golf chief Peter Dawson says the issue of men-only policies at golf
clubs is becoming “increasingly difficult”.
Muirfield, which hosts the Open this week, does not allow women to join.
Dawson, chief executive of the R&A, said: “Obviously the whole issue
of gender and single-sex clubs has been pretty much beaten to death recently”.
In the build up to this year’s Open
this story has received far more coverage than anything else associated with
the tournament, and I was going to write something about this issue yesterday,
but I forgot so I’m doing it now.
So here goes, Dawson is right to
have concerns, I understand the argument that it’s a private club and it can
set the rules it wants, but I think it’s time some of these clubs brought their
rules into the 21st century.
A golf club would rightly never get
away with a policy that only white members can join, so it’s surprising that
clubs are still allowed to exclude, well anybody really.
While this issue certainly won’t
overshadow my enjoyment of this year’s Open, as like many sports fans I prefer
it when political, social, religious, or any other kind of issues aren't the main
talking point, but I do think it’s time the R&A sat down with clubs like
Muirfield and said it’s time to change your membership rules.
No comments:
Post a Comment