A Pennsylvania State Senator has now called for an investigation by the state’s Human Relations Commission into the incident at Grandview GC, where police were called after club officials told a group of African-American women that they were playing their rounds too slowly. The incident has also resulted in a similarly named club in Pittsburgh receiving threatening phone calls and negative online messages, and prompted national commentary about racial inclusion in the golf industry.
In the aftermath of the report that police were called to Grandview Golf Club in York, Pa. to help resolve an issue with five African-American women who were told they were not playing their rounds fast enough, (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2018/04/grandview-gc-apologizes-calling-cops-black-members/) a Pennsylvania state senator has called for an investigation into the incident, a local vendor has stopped doing business with the club, and another Pennsylvania club with a similar name has received threatening phone calls and negative online messages from those confusing it with the York course, The Washington Post reported.
The incident has also led to a series of interviews with the women, one of whom said the group was only “guilty” of “GWB—Golfing While Black,” and national coverage and commentary, including a column in The Afro-American that began, “Jim Crow is alive and well and stalking the fairways of America’s golf courses.”
On April 21, The Post reported, the women, who were playing at the club for the first time as members, were told by owners and employees of Grandview that they were taking too long to play their rounds. The club offered to refund their memberships and then called 911.
When police arrived, club officials told them the women were delaying tee times for other golfers. But the police have said that once officers arrived at the course, it was clear that law enforcement did not need to be involved, The Post reported. The woman then eventually left on their own and no charges were filed.
Video footage taken by one of the women that was then made available to the press and posted on social media shows the club’s co-owner, Jordan Chronister, saying he had been timing the women. Chronister then interrupts them in a mocking tone and tells the women to leave before the police arrived, The Post reported.
Reports of the incident then prompted Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery County), to comment, “When you see these African-American women dealing with this issue, for many people it brings back this very long, very troubled history of racism and sexism, and just the denial of people’s humanity,” The Post reported.
“It’s 2018,” added Hughes, who sent a letter on April 25thto the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, requesting an investigation into the incident.
In the letter, the Post reported, Hughes states that the “women believe they were asked to leave the course because of their race and gender.”
“We have to deal with situations like this too frequently,” Hughes added in a statement. “This time, police determined it was not a matter they should have been involved in. But it is appalling that someone would call the police for a non-violent incident where the only crime was being black on a public golf course.”
Hughes told The Post that the incident at Grandview exposed many layers of racial tensions within golf, noting that African Americans—from elite athletes to amateurs—have historically been blocked from advancing in the sport and that for decades, women have been barred from gaining membership to some of the country’s most exclusive clubs.
“Then you have the additional layer of it in 2018 and dealing with the resurgence, or emboldenment, of people just speaking out and doing things and acting in ways that are unlawful, but [that] reveal their hidden and true feelings,” Hughes added.
While Hughes doesn’t represent the region where Grandview Golf Club is located, he told The Post that speaking out and calling for an investigation is one part of paying credit to the five women who were brave enough to stay on the course and wait for the police. “If I see it, I’m gonna speak out on it,” Hughes told The Post.
The Post reported that Grandview officials did not return multiple requests for comment. The club’s co-owner, JJ Chronister, whose husband, Jordan, was one of those who confronted the women, told the York Daily Record on April 23rd that in the past, “players who have not followed the rules, specifically pace of play, have voluntarily left at our request as our scorecard states.
“In this instance, the members refused to leave, so we called police to ensure an amicable result,” JJ Chronister added. “During the second conversation we asked members to leave as per our policy noted on the scorecard, voices escalated, and police were called to ensure an amicable resolution.”
JJ Chronister then issued an apology to the women on behalf of the club after reports of the incident went public, noting that the experience “did not reflect our organization’s values or our commitment to delivering a welcoming environment for everyone.
“We are disappointed that this situation occurred and regret that our members were made to feel uncomfortable in any way,” her apology continued. “We have reached out to them to meet [and] fully understand what happened, so we can ensure it never happens again.”
Those in the group of women who were asked to leave, however, have not yet been amenable to discussing the incident with the club or moving beyond it, The Post reported.
“We’re not looking at surface or quick fixes, because surface or quick fixes doesn’t fix the mind-set of what led to this,” one of the women, Sandra Thompson, told the York Daily Record.
And while officials of Grandview GC have largely been silent apart from JJ Chronister’s apology to the Daily Record, The Post reported, that has not stopped other area companies from publicly distancing themselves from the club.
Casta Cigars, a boutique cigar shop located about five miles from the golf club, was quick to denounce Grandview’s confrontation with the five women, The Post reported. While Casta Cigars sold a one-time order of about 40 cigars to Grandview a few months ago, it is now saying it will “prohibit any future sales” to the club.
Jonathan Kindig, a partner of the cigar company, told The Post that golfers at Grandview liked Casta’s cigars, “so we sell them wholesale and then they retail them.”
“Then this happened and we’re like, wait a minute, we’re not about that!” Kindig said.
The Post also reported the Grand View Golf Club, located outside Pittsburgh, has had to work since the incident to separate itself from the similarly named club in York.
KDKA, a Pittsburgh television station, reported that Grand View has been “bombarded with threatening phone calls” and online messages by people who have confused it for the York course.
Pennsylvania has also been in the national spotlight over another incident where police were called by the manager of a Starbucks in Philadelphia to remove two black men who the manager said were violating store policy by using the restroom and then remaining in the store without making a purchase. The men were led away by police in handcuffs, but the Philadelphia Police Commissioner and Starbucks’ corporate officials have since stated that the incident, which prompted demonstrations outside the store and throughout the city, should have not have been handled as it was.
In a column written for The Afro-American, Tim Lacy said the incident at Grandview GC showed that “Jim Crow is alive and well and stalking the fairways of America’s golf courses.
The women, Lacy reported, are members of a golf organization, Sisters of the Fairway, and are therefore “no strangers to golf etiquette and protocol.” They have golfed “all over the world,” Lacy added, but when faced with the local police, they decided to terminate their outing because they felt “as if they had targets on their backs,” with a member of the group, Sandra Harrison, saying when interviewed about the incident, “We were ‘guilty’ of GWB [Golfing while Black].”
Lacy’s report said that the women were originally approached and informed that they were playing too slowly on the second hole, and then approached again and told they would have to leave after taking a break after finishing the ninth hole. Lacy’s report said that was only an hour and a half after they had started their rounds.
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