When Dan Cathy, CEO of fast-food chain Chick-fil-A, voiced his opposition to gay marriage, a number of PGA Tour pros took to Twitter to defend his view. That immediately puts off the estimated 9 million LGBT Americans, as well as millions more who support gay rights. (At last check, over 50 percent of Americans surveyed now are in favor of gay marriage.)
Augusta National was going to admit female members, but on their own schedule, causing former club chairman Hootie Johnson a lot of needless problems in the early 2000s from Martha Burk.
The R&A, which runs the Open Championship, isn't planning to budge its host clubs to include women. Muirfield, which hosts the R&A's Open Championship this summer, doesn't allow women to join. The R&A said it will not "bully" all-males clubs to change their membership practices. Meanwhile, the separate Royal and Ancient Golf Club does not have a female member.
The European Tour hosts an event in Morocco on the personal course of the country's king, Mohammed VI. Monarchy is about as far from democratizing the game as possible, even if the digs for the Trophee Hassan II are amazing.
That tour's chief executive said Wednesday that Garcia has friends that are "colored athletes in the U.S.A." Oh no.
Golf has problems. They're systemic. Old habits -- from the golf economy to the more vocal conservative leanings of its players -- die hard. If the sport intends to grow, and grow up, it has to modernize in every way possible.
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