It is happening again. The wave of negative publicity which preceded golf’s return to the Olympic Games may have been offset in part by the thrilling men’s finale in Rio, but another public relations disaster has not taken long to arrive. Bulletins from Tokyo, where the venue for the Games’s tournament, Kasumigaseki Country Club, operates a policy whereby women cannot become full members and cannot play on Sundays, yet again bring golf’s Olympic alliance into question, just as it does the competence of those managing it.
At a time when the International Golf Federation should be using all its energies to convince 2016 refuseniks why participation in Tokyo 2020 makes perfect sense, it has been hit by another storm. Welcome back to golf’s age-old problem of discrimination, which has now been catapulted back into focus, this time far away from gin-stained corduroys on Scotland’s east coast.
Related: St Andrews women members still have no changing room in main clubhouse
Related: Tokyo Olympic golf course urged to let women be full members
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