This happened recently in my neck of the woods here in MA. I am appalled that this happened to this girl. I have boys who play sports and this does not teach them what I feel is appropriate. If you tee up with a girl on a golf course hole and she wins in fewer strokes then she wins. You don’t get to win just because you said only a boy is allowed to win.
I liked the Title XI comment within the article. Lets hope the MIAA can correct this dumb rule.
How sad to know that we really have not come very far since the 70’s, when Title IX was implemented. You’d think that 45 years would bring more change in attitude. They let her play because she didn’t have a girls’ team at her school. She won, fair & square. To deny her the win shows an appalling lack of respect for this young woman. Shame on them.
I agree. Class act on the boy who lost fair and square. I am sure the trophy is going into a box at the back of the closet. He is not going to be able to take any joy from it. It is a hollow item as it he purchased the trophy himself online.
^^^^^^If they let him play in the tourney, then he should be eligible to win.
I don’t get why they allowed her to play if she wasn’t going to be eligible to win. I wonder if they gave her notice of this prior to the tournament, or if it just never occurred to them that she might win.
^^^agreed. This would be a non-issue if only boys played in a boys tourney. However, if she knew the rules and wanted to compete for the sake of the competition - more power to her! She “wins” in every way except a cheap trophy.
I think we are equally wrong if we all keep using male/female references. If the team permits both sexes than we need to just focus on the skill and not the fact that a male or female won.
I personally cringe when I hear people quick to blame the other sex. Stop thinking in terms of sex, think “human being” or “person” or “teen” or whatever applies to all in that category.
But it wasn’t though. The title is misleading. Girls are allowed to compete on teams. It’s only as individuals they can’t compete. You shouldn’t be able to mix and match like that. Either girls can fully compete or not at all.
There are sports that I understand gender separation. Not that I agree with them but I understand. Golf isn’t one of them.
Golf, most certainly, is one of the sports that must be separated by gender. Not doing this would result in far fewer spots available to women. That is not what I want.
My points are not just focused on this thread, society in general.
The minute they permitted the girl to play on the team it was no longer “Boys Golf Tourney” - it was something else - “Teen Golf Tourney” or “Golfers Tourney” - or whatever.
And i just think we need to be more cognizant of arguing/defending this factor when it’s against girls - and then attacking the “boys” - or leader of the “boys”. It’s not equality when we only advocate for one.
For instance, the “me too” agenda. Maybe I missed references, but every “me too” came from a woman. Surely women superiors have harassed men. Did we encourage male “me too’s” as well?
That all said, this sport or school/organization made a big fail with this trophy decision.
MIAA prides itself on generating stupid rules on top of stupid rules. The entity exists solely to enforce stupid rules. Don’t get me started. (ha, I already have).
Their explanation is that the girl can play in the spring tournament for girls, but since her high school team (boys) competes in the fall, if she wants to play for her high school and represent her team and BE part of a team and all the fun and benefits that entails (which is about 95% why kids join high school sports, which supposedly is the purpose behind MIAA in the first place), then she’ll play in the fall with the boys, with the school’s golf coach. Maybe (probably) she plays another spring team sport and would rather not play solo and probably without a coach in the spring.
What really irks me is that she played from the same tees as the boys; so it’s not like she had any “advantage” (ahem) playing from shorter distance tees. She won fair and square.
Bravo to the boy who offered to give up the trophy, I hadn’t heard that.
Oscar Pastorius chose to try out for the regular Olympics, despite his apparent disadvantage. He could also run in the Olympics for handicapped individuals.
Owners of fillies and mares can choose to run against the males, and they can also enter “distaff” events. No one said that Zenyatta couldn’t be the official winner of the Breeder’s Cup Classic because she was a girl and there was also a ladies’ race.
If she was competing on equal terms, and she won, then she won.
So they’re saying they denied the trophy not because she was a girl, but because no one, boy or girl, would have been eligible for the trophy if their school had a golf team and they weren’t playing on it? But why was she permitted to enter the tournament, then, if she couldn’t win?
So the boy’s team gets to have the advantage (in this case anyway) of putting a girl on their team to up their score but she can’t win as an individual on that same team. No sense at all. You’re either on the team or off it. I’d like to know what the outcome (or outcry) would be if the team had won because of her score in the same tournament.
Two things did come of this though–she’s gotten publicity as a good golfer which wouldn’t happen otherwise most likely and the mother of that boy must be really proud of him.
Is there any sport besides Equestrian where males and females compete head to head at a world class level? And race car driving, although there is often debate on whether it is a sport.
@doschicos, I really don’t know. I would think that something like target shooting could easily be one, since presumably it doesn’t depend on a physical strength differential between competitors.
