‘Is that a girl?’ Woman says she was denied entry into golf tournament because she’s female

CLEVELAND, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) - A woman in Mississippi said she was denied the opportunity to compete in a golf tournament because of her gender.

Lauren Gross said she was waiting for months to play in the golf tournament with her dad at the Cleveland Country Club.

However, hours before she and her father were set to tee off for a practice round, her father received a surprising call.

“My dad gets a call, and the pro asked him, like, ‘Hey, is your daughter’s name Lauren? Is that a girl?’” Gross said. “He said ‘yes’ and they were like, ‘We are not going to allow her to play because she is a girl.’”

Gross said it’s a tournament in which her family has participated for many years.

Her dad asked her to fill in because his regular partner couldn’t make the tournament this year because of a wedding. But after signing up, her name stood out to those over the registration process, WLBT reported.

That’s when Gross said she reached out to the golf course to get more clarity on the situation.

Gross said the explanation given to her went along the lines of, “Well, we didn’t brand it as a man’s tournament, but for the 40-plus years we have been putting this on, it’s been that way, so we are just going to keep it that way.”

Gross said there weren’t any rules noticeable to her that women couldn’t play in the tournament.

“One thing that I want to be known is that I’m OK that I didn’t get to play in the golf tournament,” she said.

Gross said even though it’s not the end of the world, she’s still processing everything.

“I just think the principle of the situation and speaking up is more so to try and keep these things from happening in the future for women,” she said.

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