Tiger stays out of sexism row

David Smith13 April 2012

Tiger Woods, the biggest star in golf, today refused to intervene in the row over sexism at Muirfield, home of this week's Open.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, who own Muirfield, has a men-only membership and that policy has come in for a barrage of criticism from sports minister Richard Caborn, leading American feminist Martha Burk, and a number of golfers and professionals associated with the game.

But this morning, when given an opportunity to condemn the practice during a press conference at Muirfield, the Tiger kept his claws sheathed.

The 26-year-old American said: "If you have a group or an organisation and that is the way they want to set it up, that is their prerogative.

"It would be nice to see everyone have an equal chance to participate if they wanted to. But there is nothing you can do about it. There are clubs that have segregation, whether it is sex or it is race or even age.

"Those are issues that have happened, will continue to occur and will continue to exist for a long time."

Muirfield also has no junior section. That has caused the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the sport's governing body which is all-male, to be further condemned for bringing Britain's premier tournament to such a place.

Again, Woods, who has been paired with one of Britain's brightest prospects, Justin Rose, in the first two rounds of The Open, refused to make outright criticism of the host club. The world No1 said: "I have tried to do my part in trying to get more kids who haven't had access to the game. That is what my foundation is all about. But it is not easy. There are a lot of these clubs, that is what they believe in and that is what they have believed in for a long time.

"It'd be nice to see every golf course open to anyone who wanted to participate but that is just not where society is. It is not just simply that he is too young, or he is not the right race or he doesn't believe in the right religion. There is a lot more to it than that."

Woods himself almost found himself locked out of Muirfield when he turned up for a practice round early yesterday morning. A female security guard failed to recognise the most famous sporting face on the planet, and wouldn't let him in because he wasn't carrying his player credential.

The incident was a major embarrassment to the organisers at the time, but Woods was able to laugh about it today. "She was following the rules, doing it by the book," he said.

"I just told her that I happened to have won this tournament two years ago!"

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