(ATR) The golf venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is officially in compliance with the IOC’s rules for gender equality.
The Kasumigaseki Country Club revealed on Friday that three women have been granted full memberships. The announcement comes 14 months after the club voted to end its male-only membership policy in order to keep its hosting duties for the Olympic men’s and women’s golf tournaments.
The club has not had full female members in nearly four decades, according to Japanese media.
Prior to the rule change in March 2017, Kasumigaseki had allowed women to play the course but they could not become full members or play on Sundays.
Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Yuriko Koike, the first woman elected to that post, raised the issue in 2016. That triggered a statement from the IOC in January 2017 that the Olympic venue had to abide by the Olympic Charter prohibition against discrimination in any form.
Kasumigaseki, the second oldest golf club in Japan, joins a growing list of notable golf venues that have opened their doors to female members in recent years.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews in Scotland decided to allow women to join in 2014. Three years later, a second Scottish links course followed suit. Muirfield, founded in 1744, voted to accept women members after the R&A removed the club from the list of courses allowed to host the Open Championship. Muirfield was reinstated to the list within hours of the vote.
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. It wasn’t until 2012 that women were invited to join the ultra-exclusive club in east Georgia.
Written by Gerard Farek
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