Does the decision to host women’s golf tournaments at men-only clubs contradict the sport's commitment to inclusivity?
I received an email from a reader recently about whether hosting women’s events at men-only golf clubs was holding us back from achieving equality in golf.
“While women’s tournaments are being played on golf courses where women are not allowed to be members, we’ll never move forward as quickly as we’d like,” the reader’s email said. “Next year, the Scottish Women's Amateur Championship will be held at Western Gailes – a men-only golf club. Surely another course would have been better?”
It’s obviously a contentious issue, and there are a host of valid reasons why tournaments are held at these clubs; the main one being that the outstanding quality of the courses significantly helps to elevate the profile of these events.
But it does feel like a kick in the teeth.
Golf has made significant strides in becoming more inclusive, slowly shaking off its old-white-man’s-sport image. But hosting women’s events at clubs where women are not allowed to be members undoubtedly impacts the broader mission to make golf a more equal sport.
The honour of hosting a major event
Hosting a prestigious event is more than just a privilege for golf clubs – it often translates into increased publicity, revenue, and status.
For clubs that exclude women from membership, this begs the question: Should they benefit from the honour and promotion of hosting women’s events while maintaining policies that directly contradict the values of inclusivity?
A contradiction in values
Hosting women’s tournaments at men-only clubs strengthens the narrative that golf isn’t really for women. It condones exclusionary practices in the sport and raises doubts about the seriousness of initiatives to make golf a more equitable sport.
Equality should not be negotiable or secondary to tradition.
What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinion on this. Please email me your thoughts at [email protected]. And if you've got time, catch up on some more articles from our Levelling the Fairways series.
