Golf Canada appoints its first female prez

Admittedly, golf does not have the best track record when it comes to handling the perception that the sport is male-dominated. Truth is, it is run largely by men. Heck, the R&A doesn’t even allow female members – and they’re in charge of guarding the game on most of the acreage on the planet.

But, every now and then, the sport does something to suggest its chauvinistic reputation can change.

This week, the Royal Canadian Golf Association (known these days as Golf Canada) appointed Edmonton laywer Karen Rackel as its first female president in its 116-year history.

As Robert Thompson reports, the then-RCGA combined with the Canadian Ladies Golf Association six years ago. The two major bodies of the country were completely separate – similar to how the R&A has its female pseudo-equivalency in the Ladies Golf Union.

The USGA has a pretty prominent woman involved in its Nominating Committee, with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on board at present. She has been rumored in varying golf circles to break respective glass ceilings of the sport – membership at Augusta, a top-notch position in Far Hills.

When a woman arises to such a position as Rackel in the USGA again or the R&A (not in my lifetime) then the game can go much further to shedding the critics who claim golf is still behind the 19th Amendment – passed 90 years ago.