You Give Golf A Bad Name
Latest > Golf club apologises after calling police on black female members
Apr 23rd, 2018
Golf club apologises after calling police on black female members
AKA You give golf a bad name...
Words: Tim Southwell
You give golf a bad name... Pensylvania golf club apologises after calling police on black female members...
So you meet up with your pals on a Sunday morning for a nice round of golf at your members' club, tee off and go about the business of chasing birdies and avoiding doubles. Then you see the police rocking up. They approach you and start asking awkward questions about your speed of play.
It turned out that the co-owner of Grandview GC and his father, playing behind the women's group had called the cops after telling the women they were playing too slowly and refused requests to leave the course.
"And then one of them took three putts from 35 feet... I mean... c'mon..."
It started at the second hole, where a white man whose son co-owns the club came up to them twice to complain that they weren’t keeping up with the pace of play. One of the women, Sandra Thompson, an attorney and the head of the York chapter of the NAACP, told the newspaper it was untrue.
On the same hole, another member of the group, Sandra Harrison, said she spoke with a Grandview golf pro, who said they were fine since they were keeping pace with the group ahead of them. Despite that, and to avoid any more harassment, the women skipped the third hole, she said.
"Just a little ole country boy, doing my job..."
“I felt we were discriminated against,” one of the women, Myneca Ojo, told the York Daily Record. “It was a horrific experience.”
Now we all get fed up with slow play, but calling the cops?! The five women are part of a larger group of local women known as Sisters in the Fairway. The group has been around for over a decade, and all of its members are experienced players who have played the great game all over the country and world, Thompson said. They’re very familiar with golf etiquette, she added.
After the ninth hole, where the women took a halfway hut break, three of the group decided to leave because they were so shaken up by the earlier treatment.
Click to watch the altercation
Thompson said the man from the second hole, identified as former York county commissioner Steve Chronister, his son, club co-owner Jordan Chronister and several other white, male employees approached the remaining two women and said they took too long for their halfway break and that they needed to leave the course. Jesus, can you picture this?!
The women argued to the contrary, that they took an appropriate break, and that the men behind them were still on their beer break and not ready to tee off, as seen in a video Thompson gave the newspaper. In a spectacular twist, the women were then told that the police had been called, and so they waited.
Northern York County regional police arrived, conducted interviews and left without charging anyone.
“We were called there for an issue, the issue did not warrant any charges,” Northern York County regional police chief Mark Bentzel said. “All parties left and we left as well.”
A phone listing for Steve Chronister rang engaged all day on Monday. He told the York Daily Record he didn’t have time to comment on Sunday.
Jordan Chronister’s wife and co-owner of the club, JJ Chronister, said Sunday she called the women personally to apologize.
JJ Chronister picks up the pieces...
“We sincerely apologize to the women for making them feel uncomfortable here at Grandview, that is not our intention in any way,” she told the newspaper. “We want all of our members to feel valued and that they can come out here and have a great time, play golf and enjoy the experience.”
She said she hopes to meet with them to discuss how the club can use what happened as a learning experience and do better in the future.
Thompson said she’s not sure a meeting is what needs to happen.
“There needs to be something more substantial to understand they don’t treat people in this manner,” she said.
How about the boys just keep it zipped and stop throwing their weight about?...
