T
HE LADIES, bless the merry, meandering migratory creatures, are the delicate outer fringe of golf. So began a December 15, 1940, column by sportswriter Jack Bell that appeared in the Palm Beach Post. Bell went on to ruminate on the attractiveness of pro golfers’ wives and the various ways women like to spend money—one of their few talents, apparently, in addition to looking pretty on course and being obedient—before offering some advice to would-be Mrs. Professionals: “The woman with undue love for a cottage, flowers, children and attention to bills had best marry a man she knows can putt.” Ironically, a more modern portrait of women in golf is found in a New York Sun article from January, 1894, which noted that “a review of the athletic sports and pastimes in which women are becoming prominent is most interesting in review and most encouraging in prophecy of the new and stronger womanhood of the future... Golfing women are said to be more enthusiastic over their favorite game than half the men who play on the ‘links.’” No kidding, and so it’s 1894 all over again. For the women on the following pages, golf is far more than just a game. It connects them as women, and it helps to define the various roles they fill in their lives. For Jae Wu, who owns her own company, Heyler Realty, the game is a family affair, a way to teach her sons valuable life lessons. For Azucena Maldonado, who founded the Latina Golfers Association, the game is a key that opens doors—doors she is now helping other women to find. And for Shalini Malik, the first Indian woman ever to referee at the [British] Open Championship, the game is a calling, a responsibility and an honor, in addition to being her career. These women and countless others demonstrate every day that golf is about more than just a low score. Beyond that, they prove that women are not meant for golf’s delicate outer fringes— no matter how merry the ladies may be.
winter 2014
35