There is no doubt that great strides have been made in recent years as women campaign for equal rights to men at golf clubs.
That has been helped by proposals including how pro shops and clubs can cater for female golfers. Even higher up in the game, progress is undoubtedly being made too. For example, August’s AIG Women’s Open marked another milestone moment as venue Muirfield hosted a women’s Major for the first time.
However, there are often reminders that work needs to be done in the game to ensure women have the same privileges as men. One such example has come to light in the form of a leaked email published by Twitter account Monday Q Info. The email was sent by an unnamed club to an Epson Tour member explaining its policy on offering practice privileges with tour status.
The letter says: "Thank you for your Inquiry. Our property only extends practice/playing privileges to players on the following tours: PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Latino America, Forme Tour and PGA Tour China." Tellingly, each of those is a men’s tour, meaning that the pro is not eligible as she belongs to the official developmental tour of the LPGA Tour.
Dear Clubs,The below letter is to a player with Epson Tour status. In layman’s terms this says they do in fact let players w status have practice privileges (for free)…but only if you’re a male. But they would be happy to this woman pro a membership Pretty shitty pic.twitter.com/sgAK7K4fAfDecember 12, 2022
The email continues: “I am happy to help out on the rare occasion but am required to follow our company’s policies.” The email concludes by offering another contact to the pro for information on becoming a member
While the latter two points my seem encouraging - namely, that tweaks to the policies can be made and that women are eligible for membership, the fact that no women’s tours are listed as applicable for practice privileges suggests that, while encouraging progress is being made to ensure inclusivity to women in the game, there is still a long way to go before that particular battle is won.
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