(ATR) Tokyo 2020 says it is reviewing the membership practices of the golf course selected for the Olympic Games.
The issue of unequal treatment of women at Kasumigaseki Country Club is being raised by Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Yuriko Koike, the first woman elected to the post.
"I feel very uncomfortable about women not being able to become a regular member in this era," said Koike last week.
The golf club, Japan’s second oldest, reportedly does not grant full membership to women. Women are allowed to play, but supposedly not on Sunday, when the only women on the course are the bonneted caddies who pilot electric carts.
Tokyo 2020 says it shares the concern of the Tokyo Governor.
"On the club’s membership eligibility, Tokyo 2020 will look into the owner’s policy and responses to the public discussion in order to deliver the Games under the spirit of the Olympic Movement, working closely together with the international and national federations," says a statement from the organizing committee to Around the Rings.
"The Kasumigaseki Country Club has hosted various national competitions including Japan Women's Open (1999), and it fully meets requirements for the Olympic-level golf competitions. The club's facilities for female players are well equipped and meet their expectations, treated equally with males," says Tokyo 2020.
International Golf Federation secretary general Antony Scanlon tells ATR the IGF is surprised by the sudden controversy and says it is gathering the facts.
Kasumigaseki, about an hour drive northwest of the center of Tokyo, was founded in 1929 and has hosted more top level tournaments than any other golf course in Japan. The 36-hole venue is obviously a sharp contrast to the new 18-hole golf course in Rio that needed to be built for the 2016 Games. While $10,000,000 in venue work is forecast for the Tokyo venue, there’s little that appears to be needed from this well-established facility. The biggest adjustment will be lengthening the course by a few hundred yards.
Muirfield in Scotland is currently attracting attention over its membership policies that restrict women memberships. As a result the R&A has declared the famous course cannot hold another Open Championship until that changes.
In 1992, Atlanta Olympics President Billy Payne tried to convince the IOC to include golf at the 1996 Olympics using the fabled Augusta National Club, home of The Masters. The proposal never got far, with the exclusion of women as members essentially killing the idea with the IOC. Women are now regularly invited to join the ultra-exclusive club in east Georgia.
Written by Ed Hula.
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