‘Wow these girls can play’: sex integration in professional golf

ABSTRACT

Men and women typically operate in separate spaces in the sporting world, with sport being one of the few social institutions that continues to segregate the two sexes. The culture of golf, like sport more broadly, is widely regarded as male-dominated, despite women’s involvement in playing the sport throughout history. Typically, women’s participation has not been welcomed nor taken seriously, and golf cultures have normalised exclusionary and discriminatory practices towards women. However, golf is a sport where sex integrated practices can and do take place, with distinctions between tee boxes catering for men and women competing together. There have been instances in the professional game of women competing in men’s tournaments; in 2018, the Men’s European Tour invited 5 professional female players to compete at the GolfSixes. This paper draws upon interview data with those 5 players on their experiences of competing against men. Adopting a postmodern feminist stance, and particularly drawing on Lorber’s ‘Biology as Ideology’ argument, this paper sheds light on the complexities of sex integration in a sporting domain, highlighting a balancing act between the subversion of gendered norms and a reinforcement of them. This is exacerbated using forward tees in golf settings, and there was evidence of the sportswomen themselves negating the potential for the subversion of gendered hierarchies by perpetuating understandings on the ‘naturalness’ of sex differences. As such, challenging dominant gender norms in sex–integrated competition requires a ‘buy in’ from both sexes as to the capabilities of women’s bodies in a sporting sense.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex integration
• gender
• golf
• professional sport
• women’s sport

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. In Section 3 of the Pace of Play manual, the Royal and Ancient (2016, p. 30–31) state: ‘Many clubs that have pursued a programme of encouraging players to play from tees appropriate to their ability have found considerable success by avoiding having designated “men’s” and “women’s” tees. In many parts of the world, red tees are associated with ladies golf, and men can be reluctant to play from these tees. By simply changing the colour of the “forward” tees and referring to tees as, for example, “forward, middle and back”, evidence suggests that men are more likely to choose to play from the forward tees’.

2. In April 2019, the Challenge Tour (the men’s European Tour feeder tour), the Staysure Tour (the men’s European Tour senior tour) and the LET co-sanctioned the Jordan Mixed Open The tournament featured 40 players from each tour playing to the same pins from different tees, with 25 Challenge. Tour players, 21 Staysure players and 19 LET player smaking the midway cut The tournament was won by Daan Huizing of the Challenge Tour, beating Meghan Maclaren of the LET by 2 strokes In June 2020, the LET and European Tour will launch the Scandinavian Mixed, hosted by.Annika Sorenstam and.Henrik Stenson and featuring 78 players from each tour competing for one prize fund and one trophy.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Bowes

Dr Ali Bowes is currently a Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Nottingham Trent University, Ali completed her PhD in the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at Loughborough University. Her PhD focused on the relationship between women’s sport and English national identity, and has been published in peer reviewed journals and edited collections. Current research interests centre on feminist analyses of women’s sport, and most recently Ali is researching women’s professional golf.

Niamh Kitching

Dr. Niamh Kitching is a Lecturer in Physical Education at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. She has a wealth of experience of golf environments and settings, having represented Ireland at amateur level and having worked in Junior Golf Ireland and the PGA in England and Ireland. Her research interests include the sociology of sport and PE, sports pedagogy and coaching, elite sport, sports development and coach education. Her published research focuses on gender equality and sport, with a particular emphasis on female athletes and coaches, and their presence, participation and presentation in sport and sports media. She has published in a number of sociology of sport outputs and edited collections.