{"id":601,"date":"2011-06-06T04:05:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T04:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=601"},"modified":"2012-01-02T20:58:07","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T20:58:07","slug":"sewingbasketsandgivingthanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/golf\/personalities\/601\/sewingbasketsandgivingthanks","title":{"rendered":"Sewing Baskets, a Fish Basket, and Giving Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

First Prize when a woman wins a men's tournament......<\/p><\/div>\n

Quite often we spend time criticizing what is wrong with the game of golf:\u00a0 too many rules, discrimination, affordability issues, mandatory carts, long drawn-out rounds, not enough ‘Green’ or environmental practices in building or maintaining courses, too many mind-boggling swing theories, and equipment overload.\u00a0\u00a0 While all of these are certainly issues to be hashed out over 19th Hole drinks and conversation, I can’t help but recall the early days, pre-Title IX, when discrimination toward women in the game ran rampant.\u00a0 In some ways, it still does.\u00a0\u00a0 Back then, I had to rebel and fight simply to play the game.\u00a0 Bearing a thorn in the side aimed at men who tried to keep me out might be justified;\u00a0 but at the same time, reflecting on how my life in golf has evolved, I’d be remiss\u00a0 by not admitting it was mostly men who helped turn the tide.<\/p>\n

Forty years ago I shagged golf balls on vacant fields in inner-city Detroit.\u00a0 Today, my privileged role as an international golf and travel writer and business consultant in the golf world amazes me. \u00a0What I\u2019m truly thankful for are the men who helped me get here:\u00a0 renowned Detroit News and Detroit Free Press golf writer Jack Berry, who not only wrote about women’s golf when few did, but who also fought for my right to enter the Michigan Women\u2019s Amateur when it was closed to public players; Wayne State University college coach Joel Mason, who believed in Title IX and immediately accepted me on the men\u2019s golf team – granting a golf scholarship as well; former Golf Digest CEO Jay Fitzgerald, who rerouted an all-male America\u2019s 100 Greatest Courses ratings panel, bringing me and twelve other women onboard in 1991;\u00a0 and for my Dad, who started it all when he refused to exclude his little girl from playing sports alongside her brothers, which in the 1960’s, was all too commonplace.<\/p>\n

And then there are special thanks which cannot go unheralded:\u00a0 kudos to the course owner who unjustly and stridently berated me for slow play as a teenager;\u00a0 as the only woman in a foursome of men – two who were beginners and the third who was notoriously slow – of course it was the girl<\/em> who slowed play to a snail’s pace…..who else could it be? \u00a0 This prompted vows to never, ever, take that kind of abuse again…..and I haven’t.<\/p>\n

Circa 1810:\u00a0 The first known women’s golf tournament was held in Scotland;\u00a0 the prize for first place?\u00a0 A fish basket.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jump forward to 1975 when the gentleman running\u00a0the afore-mentioned\u00a0tournament did not anticipate a woman winning his golf event.\u00a0 Unprepared, he scanned the clubhouse looking for something appropriate to present as a prize…….there……that sewing basket on a back shelf display.\u00a0 That should do it……. which begs the question:\u00a0 why<\/em> was a sewing basket even on display in the clubhouse?<\/p>\n

I still have the sewing basket.\u00a0\u00a0 Could have used the fish basket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quite often we spend time criticizing what is wrong with the game of golf:\u00a0 too many rules, discrimination, affordability issues,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1495,7],"tags":[4569,8364],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-what-do-women-want","category-personalities","tag-women","tag-discrimination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2011\/06\/sewing-basket.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions\/1006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}