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Rule Isn’t Quick Fix

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A new girls’ golf rule designed to increase playing opportunities has been instituted in California this fall, but the rule may have the opposite effect.

The California Office of Civil Rights, acting on a Title IX gender-equity complaint, earlier this year mandated that California Interscholastic Federation girls’ golf teams increase the number of players from four to six, the same as in boys’ golf.

In worst-case scenarios, some schools might be forced to drop girls’ golf. Although the statewide change would open more playing spots for girls, the reality is that there simply aren’t enough girls playing varsity-caliber golf to meet the requirements. Coaches are raiding junior varsity teams, often forcing players with minimal skills into the stress of varsity competition.

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The numbers reported by several golf organizations indicate that the significant increase mandated by the OCR is nearly impossible. There are approximately 300 schools in California with girls’ golf, meaning the OCR is asking for about 1,800 players.

But the Southern California PGA Junior Golf Assn. has only 290 female members compared to 1,750 male. In Northern California, there are 1,827 members: 283 female and 1,544 male.

“Mathematically, looking purely at the numbers, I’d say it’s pretty tough to add that many girls to golf teams,” said Kevin Ostroske, junior golf program director for the SCPGA. “Your talking about increasing teams from four to six--that’s a 50% increase. Girls’ golf is just not growing that fast.”

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Most involved applaud the long-term goal of the new rule, but many fear it is more than teams can handle in their fourth year of existence.

“It’s about two or three years too early for this change,” said Aaron Solis, coach at San Marcos High in Santa Barbara. “I think the rule is good, but we should phase it in. We should go to five players for a year or two, then go to six.”

Jim Staunton, the CIF’s Southern Section commissioner, said that phasing in players was not an option.

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Staunton said a girls’ golfer in Northern California filed a complaint last year when she didn’t make the varsity team, claiming she would have if girls had the same number of players as boys.

The OCR, citing Title IX , ruled in her favor. The OCR mandated that schools must either increase the number of players on girls’ teams or decrease the number on boys’ teams.

The Southern Section, like most of the 10 CIF sections, voted to increase the number of girls. The City Section, however, feared an exodus of girls’ programs and changed its scoring system to four-out-of-seven for boys and girls. This allows teams with limited players to field a team with four and allows larger teams to have seven.

“If we required five-out-of-six or six-out-of-seven scoring, we wouldn’t have enough girls to have teams,” said Carol Altshiller, coach at L.A. Center for Enriched Studies. “We don’t want to lose teams.”

At St. Margaret’s High in San Juan Capistrano, Coach Rocky Parker did all he could to field a team. He posted fliers and made announcements the first few days of school seeking players. Six girls showed up, but only two could break 65 for nine holes, so he canceled all matches.

“The dilemma is do you just put five bodies out there or do you put five golfers?” Parker said. “It’s not like soccer, where a girl can just go out there and stand around and you can cover up for the inexperience. In golf, they have to go out there and directly contribute. “

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Several teams and leagues in the Southern Section have chosen to ignore the rule for preseason and league matches. They will use the old format until forced to add players when the Southern Section playoffs begin.

Staunton said that any team currently playing with fewer than five players is in violation of the new rule and would not be eligible for postseason play.

Playing under the old format, however, is the only way for some schools to save their programs.

“If they told me I had to play with five, I would have to close the doors on my program today,” said Coach Terry Orabona of Santa Ana Valley.

The Channel League, which includes schools in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, has also chosen to play all matches with three-out-of-four scoring.

“For some programs and teams, the new rule is wonderful,” said Dick Sebek, coach at Ojai Nordhoff. “But you shouldn’t tell teams they can’t play because all of a sudden we have to have two extra players. I don’t think dissolving teams is the intention of the rule.”

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Maybe not, but it’s certainly been a side effect. Just ask Taylore McClurg, a senior at St. Margaret’s who worked diligently three years ago to help start the program . Each of the last two seasons, the Tartans made the Southern Section playoffs, but graduation took two players and this year the new rule took the team.

“It’s very disappointing,” said McClurg. “I really wanted to have a team this year because I would have been captain.”

Even staunch supporters of Title IX are concerned about implementation of the new rule.

Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation and one of the nation’s most outspoken advocates of Title IX, said the rule should not deny anyone the opportunity to play.

“In trying to encourage the gender to play, you should not cap participation,” said Lopiano, who made The Sporting News’ list of the 100 most powerful people in sports. “There should be some way to accommodate the developing programs.”

Lopiano suggests adding individual competitions to each match. That way, if a school doesn’t have the minimum number of players for a team, girls can still compete and schools would not be forced to shut down their programs.

The City Section, in fact, uses such a format. Instead of scheduling dual matches between two schools, it has matches with each league member participating. Teams that don’t have the minimum of four players can still have individuals play.

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“We’re trying to make it fun,” Altshiller said. “If a team doesn’t show up, it doesn’t matter. The individuals can still play.”

Another concern in adding players is pace of play. Girls’ golf had a rocky beginning with teams continually clashing with golf course operators over pace of play and on-course etiquette issues. That relationship had stabilized as the quality of play improved, with teams generally adhering to the accepted 2-hour 15-minute standard of a nine-hole round.

But adding two players to each team is a setback. Many of these players are recruited out of physical education classes with no golf experience and no equipment.

Coaches are putting clubs in their hands and putting them in varsity lineups. Many struggle to break 70 for nine holes and nine-hole matches last more than 31/2 hours.

“It was so hard to break the stereotypes from that first year and it seemed like we did it,” said Darlene Bible, coach at North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake. “Now we’re back to square one.”

Even last year, most teams had at least one player not qualified for varsity competition. At the 2000 Southern Section championships, a tournament for the best 15 teams, 17 of the 60 girls failed to break 100.

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Those scores did not count last year. This year, those scores and two others will.

“When players shoot scores like that, they tend to get frustrated and give up on golf,” Ostroske said. “Players like that should be at the driving range learning how to hit the ball and taking lessons from PGA professionals. I’m interested to see if these girls come back.”

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