‘Misogyny gone mad’: Women banned from Queenstown golf comp

Arrowtown Golf Club is in the gun for banning women from a weekly competition – a problem New Zealand Golf is this week trying to resolve.

For at least 20 years, women freely competed with men in Saturday club competitions.

Last October, however, the men’s match committee announced women could only compete amongst themselves.

The committee had been having “issues and problems” over women’s differential scoring, and acted after a member’s written complaint over a woman member’s eligibility for an event.

Only three women, who were playing on Saturday because they worked week days, had been regularly playing against the men.

One of them, Joanna Booker, calls the club ban “misogyny gone mad”.

“In this day and age where the world is striving for equity between the sexes, it seems that Arrowtown Golf Club has taken a large step backwards.”

“We would love to have sorted this out within the club but we’ve exhausted our avenues there and been told that we have no speaking rights with the men’s match committee.”

Booker says she and the others feel marginalised at a time when NZ Golf, ironically, is trying to redress the dire dropoff of women members.

She says she was the only woman playing last Saturday and felt embarrassed having to accept the women’s prize, particularly as “my score was a bit shit”.

Source: nzherald