Women to play in British Open

[AmericanErrorist]

''One of the enduring divisions in the world of professional sport is to be abolished after the Royal and Ancient, golf's governing body, said yesterday that a decades-old bar on women playing at the Open Championship will be removed.

In a move that will delight campaigners for equality of the sexes in golf (not to mention horrify the countless, blazer-wearing buffers in suburban clubhouses across the world), Peter Dawson, secretary of the R&A, said in an interview with the Guardian that he will back a change to the Open's entry form which would allow top women golfers such as Annika Sorenstam and the American teenager Michelle Wie to participate in the world's most famous tournament.

Under the current rules, the R&A only accepts applications to play in the Open from "any male professional golfer or from a male amateur golfer" - a stipulation unique in the world of top-class golf and one which has added weight to the view that the R&A, which does not allow women members, is a bastion of sex discrimination.

"That wording was put in place at a time when it was never thought that women would want to enter. If it is offensive to people then we will take it out," Mr Dawson said. "The R&A is not in the business of keeping women out of the Open."''



'' said the entry form for the 2005 Open had already been printed, but a modified form, once approved by the club's championship committee, would be available in time for the 2006 event.''

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/golf/story/0,10069,1415511,00.html

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

1. Well, that only seems fair . . .

. . . if it is supposed to be a true "open" tournament. But I assume that the women professionals will still have to qualify to play like everybody else.

[Pithlet]

2. Oh, they will?

I was thinking I now had an in, even though I've never played outside putt putt. Well, crap.