Whaley, now breaking barriers, expected to be named PGA president
Two moments of discrimination took place 1,000 miles and worlds apart, neither pointing to Suzy Whaley making history this week at the PGA of America.
Whaley was just getting hooked on golf in Syracuse, New York, and she was good enough to compete in tournaments when her name was scratched off the entry list of a junior tournament for boys because she was a girl.
"And now I've played in a PGA Tour event," said Whaley, who at the 2003 Greater Hartford Open became the first woman in 58 years to qualify for a PGA Tour event. "Look how far we've gone. It's not where we need to be, but we're making progress. And that makes me smile."
Around the time Whaley had her first whiff of discrimination as a young girl, Barrie Naismith Jeffcoat was working at a golf club in Atlanta as a 29-year-old woman who was giving lessons and going nowhere.
She hired young men to handle the carts and pick up golf balls from the range. Some of them went on to become PGA professionals and got jobs at other clubs.
She couldn't join the PGA as a certified pro because she was a woman.
"Something was wrong with this picture," Naismith Jeffcoat said in a telephone interview Monday from her home in Virginia. "At the time I was giving lessons to Superior Court Judge (Joel) Fryer. He gave me the name of his attorney. The attorney advised me to call the PGA. I got a lawyer on the phone with the PGA and he told me, 'You can call Jimmy Carter, but it won't do you any good.'"
Instead of calling the president, she filed a lawsuit against the PGA in 1978. By the end of the year, the PGA signed the Naismith Consent Degree, giving women equal rights to become PGA professionals. Naismith became the first female member on Feb. 1, 1979.
She stayed with the PGA a few more years, yet the impact will be felt strongest this week at the PGA of America's annual meeting in California.
Whaley is set to become the first female president in its 102-year history.
"I'm so thrilled she'll have a high profile," said Naismith Jeffcoat, who has never met Whaley. "There will be a lot of young women that will take up the game and want to be involved. It's very exciting to me to see it come to fruition."
Whaley is a consensus-builder, perhaps her greatest asset.