Charlotte Mayorkas is following in the footsteps of Michelle Wie
and Annika Sorenstam but without all the hype.
The star of the UCLA women’s golf NCAA Championship team
will be the only woman competing at the California State Open
starting today in Murrieta.
On top of that, Mayorkas and her teammates will be the only
women’s team to play at the Gold Rush, a tournament for
California’s collegiate teams, in late September. The UCLA
women’s golf team will be the lone team comprised of women in
the field.
Mayorkas and her Bruin teammates should be encouraged and
congratulated for their willingness to compete with the guys. UCLA
men’s golf coach and Gold Rush coordinator O.D. Vincent
should also be acknowledged for his progressive thinking by
inviting the UCLA women’s team to the event.
Mayorkas and her teammates will have their critics, saying they
shouldn’t be there. Some may even add, “Why can’t
a guy play in a women’s tournament?” or “It would
be too demoralizing for a guy to lose to a girl,” or
“They already have their own tournaments that they can play
in.”
And I say to the critics, “Why not let them
play?”
Any guy who would hate being beaten by a woman simply because of
her gender has some personal issues to take care of.
What’s the worst thing that could happen? Mayorkas plays
the best golf she’s ever played, beats a lot of guys, and
helps the sport of women’s golf grow?
Women should be given the same opportunity as men to play sports
in this country. Just because men have a biological advantage over
women in most sports doesn’t mean all women should be
excluded from playing with the men, and it definitely does not mean
that women’s sports are inferior to men’s sports.
If a woman is good enough to play in men’s leagues, why
not let her play?
Mayorkas has proven she is one of the elite women’s
collegiate golfers in the country. It is natural for any athlete to
want a tougher level of competition once he or she has mastered the
level of play he or she is currently at.
Would you keep a baseball player who is tearing it up in the
minor leagues away from the majors for very long?
Would you teach algebra to someone who is ready for
calculus?
I would love to see the top female golfers in the country go to
Q-school and earn a PGA Tour card.
I would have loved to see Venus Williams and Serena Williams
““ in their prime when they were playing against each other in
seemingly every tournament final ““ try to compete on the
men’s tennis tour.
Why? Because sports in their purest sense are about seeing who
is the best, regardless of physical attributes like height, weight,
race or gender.
I know of at least one woman who can compete with the guys quite
well:
Jennie Finch.
Granted, softball and baseball are slightly different sports,
especially when it comes to pitching.
But Finch, the U.S. Olympic Softball star, as part of her role
on the television show “This Week in Baseball,” faced
dozens of major league hitters last year. Not one of them ever got
a solid hit off of her. In fact, very few hitters even made
contact. Finch made some of the top hitters in the world look
foolish while doing what they do best.
I don’t mean that I expect Mayorkas or the UCLA
women’s golf team to be dominating against the men. Men on
average hit the ball farther than the women. It’s a
biological advantage the women will have to overcome.
But if they can overcome it, the door will open for even more
women to play against the men down the road.
Once some women start beating men at sports regularly, it
won’t seem so bad anymore for insecure guys when they
lose.
Yes, Quiñonez is the same columnist who many of you called
a male chauvinist after he bashed gymnastics.
E-mail him at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.