Women now full members at golf club

The executive board of Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki Country Club voted Monday to amend its membership policy to fully include women after organizers for the 2020 Olympics threatened to strip the club of its right to host the 2020 Olympic golf tournament.

The decision, which was reported by the Associated Press, was urged by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and came three days after International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach issued another warning that a failure to lift the ban on female members could result in relocation of the event.

(It’s been a big week for equal rights on the golf course. Monday’s vote came six days after Muirfield, the venerable Scottish golf club, voted to allow women to become members for the first time in its 273-year history, thereby restoring the club’s eligibility to host the British Open.)

“I’d like to extend my gratitude to the members of the club for their understanding and co-operation,” Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, said in a statement after Monday’s vote.

Kasumigaseki Country Club, located about 30 miles outside of Tokyo and founded in 1929, had barred women from becoming full members that would give them various rights to the club, including playing on Sundays.

“We made quite clear that there has to be gender equality,” International Olympic Committee Vice President John Coates said last month in an interview (via the Australian Broadcasting Company) at the Asian Winter Games in the northern city of Sapporo.

“If they can’t achieve the gender equality then we have to get another course.”

Currently, about 1,000 men are full members of the club.

To become a member, applicants must be referred by a current member, as well as pay more than $100,000 for full membership status.

The club didn’t reject women entirely before Monday’s vote. While women couldn’t become full members, which would allow them to golf on Sundays, they could become junior members, a status that gave them some access to the club’s courses.

“We have always believed our policy has been very open, so we were caught by surprise,” Kasumigaseki General Manager Hiroshi Imaizumi told the AP in January.

He added, “We welcome all female players and we have no intention of creating a gender barrier.”