A professional golfer for 18 years on the LPGA Tour, Jane Blalock has 29 LPGA titles, two triple crowns and three World Ladies Championships to her credit.
Great, she has been told, but you still can’t sit in the men’s grill.
“There have been many times,” says Blalock, “when I wanted to have a drink with my playing partners–most of them are male–and was told we had to sit on the lawn. My male partners at the time said, `We feel really awful about this.’ The best part was I had just whipped them and was trying to collect my money.”
Far less famous female golfers face similar discrimination on a regular basis–at public courses where they are sometimes harassed for “playing too slow” and at many private country clubs where they are denied membership entirely, given it with restrictions attached or limited to playing the course on certain days or at certain times.
In 1991, Blalock took a step toward trying to end some of the discrimination and uneasiness women feel and experience on the golf course when she conducted a trial LPGA Golf Clinic in Washington. “When it sold out in three days,” said Blalock, “we knew we were on to something.”
Four years later, Blalock’s company will conduct daylong clinics for businesswomen in 14 U.S. cities this summer.
“Our goal,” said Blalock, a color analyst for ESPN, “is that our individual participants learn all aspects of the game–etiquette, the jargon–but most important that they feel comfortable enough to participate in events and outings they’re invited to. If you’re a businesswoman and don’t play golf, you miss out on so much.”
Recently, Blalock and LPGA Tour pro Chris Johnson, fresh off a win at the Star Bank tournament, were at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville preaching their message to 153 participants.
“What I tell women,” said Rusty Gaston, vice president of operations for the health care unit of EDS, a Ross Perot company and the day’s guest speaker, “is how important golf has been in my business career. Networking is fundamental to a service economy and there’s no better forum than a golf course. It’s the only place I know of where you can spend four hours–at a minimum–with a person. Very rarely do I spend four hours with one of my customers otherwise.
“To be effective in business, a person has to have a lot of humility, and a golf course is an equalizer–it humbles us all. What women have to learn is not to be afraid.”
Susan Coveny of Long Grove, president of a real estate brokerage who plays at two clubs, Royal Melbourne and Hillcrest, said she owes much of her success in business to the contacts she has made on the links.
“I was being invited to golf outings and board functions,” said Coveny, “and I decided I’d better learn ,” she said. “Now everyone wants to play with me because I know how to play. Golf is important in order to gain in business and jump up the corporate ladder. Ninety percent of the time I spend on the golf course is business-related.”
Blalock, though, said bringing businesswomen together to network and to talk about their experiences on the course–good and bad–is only a first step. Discrimination won’t end, she said, until women feel empowered enough to take action, which in the insular world of the private club can be difficult to do.
“Discrimination by clubs is a question that is always raised,” Blalock said. “We tell women to try to get on the board of directors, to speak out when given the opportunity. You can’t stick your neck out too far or you’ll make your life miserable, but if you just sit around and don’t do anything, nothing will change.”
Author Marcia Chambers, in her new book “The Unplayable Lie,” writes: “The reason going to court should be the last resort for a club member is that, regardless of the outcome, the member who sues is usually ostracized from his or her social world. Friendships are damaged; club members take sides. The plaintiff becomes a pariah.”
Blalock gets to see the whole country in her travels and says, “Chicago, Boston and New York are the worst. Some of the older, established clubs in the East and Midwest have all kinds of tradition.”
Chambers cites Butler National in Oak Brook, which gave up the Western Open rather than admit female members, as one of the worst offenders. Most Illinois clubs do not allow women to become full voting members and many have restrictive tee times.
“At the newer clubs there has been progress,” said Blalock. “Florida has a state law, outlawing discrimination by private clubs. Minnesota, too. California is very progressive. It’s not enough. In the 1990s, there shouldn’t be any discrimination.”
One thing women can do, said Coveny, is to fight from a position of strength.
“When you learn how to play golf it gives you confidence and respect,” said Coveny. “When men see you know how to mark the ball, play the ball, they invite you back.”
