Golf Fore the Good

Wow. If bees weren’t already buzzing at Dennis Pines and Dennis Highlands, they sure are swarming now. Killer bees, I think.

Long ago, in what for all intents and purposes was another life time, I once thought golf was a boring game. Of course that ended the day I took a few swipes at a golf ball and connected - really connected – for the first time.

This winter, our off season has been far from quiet and certainly never boring. Apparently you can take the golf clubs out of our hands, but you can’t take the passion for golf out of our lives.

Golf has been around for a good long time. Golf will outlast the squabbling about what may or may not be served for the championship dinner at Augusta. Time will hopefully wipe away the smudge of poor judgment left on our game shown by a very bad choice of cover art. But the war of the sexes on the golf course has been brewing since someone came up with that foolish acronym - G.O.L.F. ( Gentleman Only, Ladies Forbidden) - possibly the oldest bad golf joke ever. This month the male/female golf controversy has hit home in a big way through a law suit file by Elaine Joyce, a local low handicapper.

The game has survived all its ups and downs over centuries of play and change. That is why it remains a mystery as to why the male-female thing has to be such a big deal.

Personally, I have never felt any sexual discrimination on the golf course. Oops, never say never - there was that one incident at St Ives with my brother but I managed to chock that up to Dixieland conventions and simply thanked my lucky stars that I do not live down south. I was also once declared to not be “a normal woman” on the golf course but that was only the grumblings of a middle aged man who’s ego couldn’t stand that I could both out drive him and out score him.

This is not to say I’ve lived - or played - with my head in the sand. I have known women involved in other discrimination suits and have heard stories of tee time discrimination from players who are members at private courses. I have always been grateful that being a muni player at a public course has shielded me from those sort of gender biases. After all, as a woman I pay my property taxes to the municipality on an equitable basis as any male town folk and my membership dollars buy me the exact same bag tag.

Then again, I have never lacked for the opportunity to play in various venues. I’ve be blessed with the chitzpah to play with the men since the beginning and welcomed by them, always. I’ve found enough tournaments and friendly rivalry to satisfy my competitive edge without feeling compelled to break down any social barriers. I will make note that I was the very first woman to play in the now defunct Spaghetti Open but I didn’t consider that much of a sexual statement at the time. It was not me in the parking lot chucking meatballs on the evening of the tournament’s premature demise nor were the meaty little projectiles being thrown at me. But that’s another story…

The difference between Ms. Joyce and myself is more than a fistful of handicap points. I have a flexible schedule that allows me to enter as many tournaments as I like, many that laboring a regular work week would not allow another golfer. I am content to play the majority of my golf from the forward tees with the ladies and enjoy some mixed tournaments - again playing from the forward tees - when the opportunity arises. I test my game occasionally from the longer tees and enjoy the challange. Ms. Joyce wants more; she has developed her game from the back tees and wants the chance to enter competitive events as an equal. Is that such a big deal? I really never saw the point of Annika and Michele teeing off with the guys. But I also don’t see why they shouldn’t, should they so choose. Whether I want the same opportunity or not is irrelevant - this should be any player’s due.

Always considered as one of the most civilized and honorable of games, golf has not been without controversy over the ages. The very origin of golf itself has been long debated. While now considered one of the most gentile of pastimes, golf was actually banned by law for nearly fifty years in Scotland. Fifty years… that’s just crazy. Do you realize how many rounds you’d miss in fifty years without golf? Do the math… it’s frightening.

Skip forward some five or six hundred years. The game has survived – and lately, thrived – but golfers are merely human (despite what some non-golfers may insist) and some discord is bound to exist. Some of the topics of concern are non-issues; some of them will never be resolved.

Not long ago folks got all riled up about walking versus riding and a lot of good, serious debate arose from the whole Casey Martin affair. Around the same time we somehow endured the war on metal spikes; those blasted plastic widgets have apparently emerged the victor. Through it all, the game survives, integrity intact.

Golfers have been systematically massacred since the dawn of time for their mode of dress, both male and female, never mind their mode of transportation. We can’t forget the 1999 Ryder Cup having stirred up a whirlwind of criticism. Well, I say, forget the loss of composure by the Americans; someone lost their mind long before that when they designed those shirts. Now that is a crime that cannot be forgiven. And still we play.

Even the Church of England is not immune to a little spit-spat about golf. It seems politics is not the only thing with which religion does not always mix.

Then there’s this video essay from Frank Deford. A sort of chicken or the egg question; it will really leave you scratching your head.

Controversy in golf will surely be with us always. Nineteenth holes everywhere flourish with discussions and differences of opinion on everything from technique to tournaments and everything in-between. The game of golf will be discussed again and again both in and around the nucleus that is every clubhouse.

Ms. Joyce will not be going away quietly. I commend her for taking a stand but don’t really understand why it had to come to this. First of all, did the Town of Dennis not see the writing on the wall left by the discrimination suits brought at various private clubs around the country? The last thing our cash strapped municipal course needs is to be forced to make a big financial payout. It sure would have been easier just to let her tee off in the men’s member-guest. Just another unfortunate action taken by our questionable head golf professional? I’m not sure who made the call last fall but it is certainly not that he, she or they did not have precedent to consider here.

Fair is fair, you say? What about men playing from the ladies tees then? The sporting world has pretty much set established guidelines in that regard. In general, professionals do not compete directly against amateurs. They don’t let the heavy weights in the ring with the welter weights. The really big kids aren’t allowed to play in the sandbox. And besides, don’t people realize why amateur golfers have established handicaps for competitive play? What is the big deal about teeing off here or there and with whom you do it?

This is an age old fight and the debate will continue. Change comes slowly to our little part of the world. The big question now is not if, but when and how high the cost?

Out of curiosity, take our survey and let’s see how the public weighs in on this subject.

Take the survey here.