NCAA, Golf Channel need to do better
The inequalities between the men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments aren’t a surprise to those who follow women’s basketball. It happens every year. It’s just more glaring when the pandemic forced the tournament to be held at a single site.
Photographs of an expansive weight room for the men’s teams compared to a small weight rack and yoga mats at the women’s facility generated the top story in the days leading up to Sunday’s games in San Antonio. Then came photographs of the differences in the “swag bags” given to each athlete and reports about different COVID testing regimens, meal choices and even rules regarding outdoor walks.
Many of the issues were addressed before the country’s top teams began play Sunday. The play will not suffer because women — even elite basketball athletes who often led the call for social justice on campuses in the summer of 2020 — are used to sexism.
“Growing up, it has always been different with men’s and women’s sports in general,” Stephen F. Austin guard Zya Nugent said. “I’m grateful to be here, grateful to experience all of this, but it’s definitely disappointing.”
That push and pull between being
grateful and living with constant disappointment from unequal treatment starts early in life.
I watched the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship on Golf Channel. Albany Academy’s Kennedy Swedick was playing in the tournament, held in November. She was in contention, firing rounds of 72 and 67 in the first two rounds of the 54hole National Championship featuring 150 qualifiers across four divisions. She entered the final day at the top of the leaderboard. Swedick finished tied for eighth place in the 13-and-under age group at 2 under par, capping off a phenomenal year for the rising junior golfer.
But after watching the televised program in December, I was annoyed at the blatant sexism. I knew the junior girls had much less air time than the boys. In Swedick’s age group, for example, they featured just one player. I knew the boys dominated the broadcast both in playing time and researched profiles. The coverage gnawed at me. So I watched it again, and this time I calculated how much of a disparity there really was.
The two-hour broadcast included 68 minutes of golf competition and features on golfers. Of those minutes, 46 were dedicated to boys, and 22 highlighted girls. The boys’ 14-18 division went into a playoff, but that only accounted for three extra minutes of air time.
Equally frustrating was the commentary provided by the announcers, including the Golf Channel’s Notah Begay. The boys in the older 14-18 age group were singled out repeatedly for accepting college offers from top golf programs. Boys were featured much more in pre-taped profiles. Many more boys were given air time during the competition even if they weren’t at the top of the leaderboard. It was unequal treatment. The girls were an afterthought.
Then I read a March 4 Washington Post story about a culture of sexism at Golf Channel. The on-course reporter interviewing the girls during the Notah Begay tournament, Lisa Cornwell, has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging discrimination and retaliation, according to the Post.
The popular anchor and reporter for the Nbc-owned Golf Channel recently resigned from her position at Golf Channel and is speaking out on her seven years working there.
The Post reported: Cornwell’s comments ricocheted around both the network and the world of golf, a sport with a well-documented history of struggling to include both women and minorities. The reaction was overwhelming, Cornwell said, with dozens of women reaching out to share their stories with her.
And the Post went on to tell many of those stories. In 2019, for example, one woman was in the control room during an LPGA tournament, where a group of men were having a conversation about several Asian golfers and using sex toy references.
This is especially horrific as people across the U.S. participate in rallies this weekend to condemn attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders after the shooting rampage in Atlanta that left eight people dead. It’s not just the shootings. Asian Americans are afraid in our country — with hate crimes against them spiking during the pandemic. Working to #stopasianhate is the responsibility of all.
So it’s no surprise a national junior golf event that includes both boys and girls fell way short of being equal on Golf Channel.
Golf Channel executives, producers, researchers and personalities — including the man who puts his name on this tournament, former PGA star Notah Begay — need to do better.
Begay, a four-time PGA champion and Native American, has done amazing work for Native American boys and girls and has partnered with the LPGA. His tournament at Atunyote Golf Club at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Oneida and his new Junior National Championship benefit the Notah Begay III Foundation for the creation and delivery of sustainable athletic programming for Native American youth. Young girls who play in his junior tournaments no doubt are grateful to him.
But he can do better. So can Golf Channel. So can the NCAA.