Keeping up with the girls

I made my greatest contribution to the sport of golf more than 30 years ago when I moved from Montana to the East Coast. Stop playing.

The truth is that he was a lousy golfer and was not willing to put in the time and effort to improve much. When he played on the courses in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, he paid more attention to the scenery than to the game. I approached the task of hitting a golf ball the same way I approached hitting in the minor leagues. My idea was to hit the thing as hard as I could without worrying excessively about where I was going after I hit it and then run like hell, which was necessary if I was going to track the ball and be out of the field before the next sunrise. . (It never occurred to me to rent a golf cart.)

The only reason I took up golf in the first place was because, in college, I dated a girl who was a really good golfer. She grew up in a small town on the Great Plains. The golf course there was so primitive that the greens had no grass; they consisted of sand, to which oil was applied to retain the dust. After finishing putting, she was expected to use a tool to smooth the sand for the next golfer. My girlfriend had still finished second in her state high school tournament, even though she had few opportunities to practice on real grass fields.

Other golfers used to stop and watch, admiring my girlfriend’s swing. At least that’s what they said they were admiring. I didn’t care for her. She could play better than almost every man we encountered, and regardless of whether it was her swing or something else that first caught her eye, viewers soon recognized her ability.

I thought the novelty and chauvinism towards young female golfers faded a long time ago, sometime between my college sweetheart and Michelle Wie. Then I started reading that high school athletic officials in Idaho are considering cutting Sierra Harr from the Castleford High School boys’ golf team.

Harr, a junior, helped the team win a state championship last season. She finished seventh overall in the men’s tournament, having won the women’s state title a year earlier. Not enough girls attended golf to allow Castleford to field a team last season, so Harr’s only options were to play individually or join the boys’ team.

Federal law has required schools to provide equal athletic opportunities for boys and girls for the past 40 years. While this does not require schools to offer both genders a team for every sport, it does place the onus on schools to find ways to accommodate students who want to play a sport that is not offered for their gender. This usually means allowing the girls to play with the boys when it is not practical to form an all-girls team.

In Broward County, Florida, 17-year-old Erin DiMeglio has taken a few snaps at quarterback this season for South Plantation High School, a formidable team that includes, and faces, players destined for Division varsity teams. I. While she is apparently the first female quarterback to play for a Florida high school, The Associated Press has estimated that more than 500 girls have been on the gridiron at other positions.

DiMeglio, who is a college basketball prospect, is only the team’s third quarterback and is likely to see limited action. This is understandably a relief to her parents, who have good reason to worry that her daughter will be sacked by rival players much bigger than her. But DiMeglio has the support and acceptance of her teammates and the enthusiastic support of the team’s fans, who yelled at his coach to put her in the season opener against rival Nova. (She did, by two running plays.)

If fellow players accept girls on boys’ teams and fans accept them, why do some Idaho sports officials seem to have a problem with it?

It could be anachronistic sexism, I suppose, the kind that still can’t allow a woman to be able or should be allowed to compete athletically with men. The kind that could still watch a woman’s performance and see the woman instead of the performance. Maybe that’s the answer, but I doubt it.

I suspect the objections stem from a misplaced definition of what is “fair.” Under this logic, it is not fair that a girl can compete on a boys’ team in sports while we would not accept the presence of a boy on a girls’ team.

But what the players and the public understand, even if the coaches and school officials do not, is that the girl does not have an unfair advantage when playing with the boys, while the reverse is not necessarily true. Nature endowed children, in general, with greater size and greater strength. Most girls have to make up for these handicaps with skill, coordination, practice, and determination. There’s nothing unfair about Erin DiMeglio playing soccer with hers male schoolmates, or Sierra Harr playing golf with hers.

Maybe one day a strange situation will arise in a place like Idaho, where a school has enough girls interested in golf to make a team, but not enough boys. If that happens and a boy wants to play for the girls’ team, the correct answer might be to say yes. If not, there are alternatives, such as fielding combined teams of children from various schools.

Harr reports that she, like DiMeglio, has found acceptance from her male peers. “The boys on my team treated me as an equal,” he wrote to Idaho school officials, “and if any of my competitors disapproved of my golfing with the boys, they were kind enough to keep their opinions to themselves and treated me with respect. The only negative reactions I got were from some rival coaches.” (one)

I am reaching a point in life where I am considering taking up golf again, this time with my wife. It would be nice to spend time with her outdoors, enjoying the scenery while we chase that little white ball. I go out to Idaho from time to time. Someday I might even find myself on a golf course with Sierra Harr.

She seems like a very nice young lady, so I’m sure she’ll be patient with me until I can let her play. She knows better than anyone that a lot of guys just can’t keep up with the girls on the field.

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1) Yahoo! News, “Idaho golfer struggles to play with kids”