July 31--GARDEN CITY -- Paula Van Norden plays two to three rounds of golf a week at the Country Club of Southwind, on which her home sits. She scoffs at her 19 handicap -- established on one of the state's toughest courses -- and considers herself an average golfer at best.
She played in the Southwest Kansas Pro-Am for the first time two years ago. The two-day event, which will be held next weekend, is the pride of Garden City and has raised close to $1 million over the last three decades for the St. Catherine Hospital prenatal care unit.
Van Norden is one of the few women who can say she has played in the event. But this year's pro-am will be a men-only affair, a fact underscored recently in a letter sent to Van Norden from the tournament committee informing her of the format change. Van Norden can play, the letter stated, in the women's tournament, which takes place Tuesday, three days before the main event.
"It's discrimination," she said. "I don't know what else to call it. A class of people has been eliminated from this event."
This is particularly painful because the Southwest Kansas Pro-Am always has been "a family event" for the Van Nordens.
"I play it, my husband and son play it," she said. "We house the pros. This year, we had three of them stay with us.
"It's a week of events for us."
The 31-year-old Garden City pro-am event aligned itself this year with the Adams Series Tour -- a Texas-based golf tour that holds events in Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.
The Southwest Kansas Pro-Am committee said the presence of the Adams Series forced it to reduce the number of teams that can compete in the two-day event, Aug. 6-7. To compensate, a Tuesday women's tournament was added, as well as a mixed event on Sunday.
"We have a full field," said Kent Colvin, Liberal, a member of the Southwest Kansas Pro-Am's leadership committee and one of the event's founding fathers. "We have 65 four-player teams."
But Van Norden, who had been knocking on the door to play in the Pro-Am for several years before finally being allowed to take part in 2008, doesn't believe that was the reason.
"I thought we were past this nonsense," she said.
The nonsense, Van Norden noted, is one of the unspoken truths of the Pro-Am, which existed for 19 years before it allowed a woman to play. In 1998, that woman had to qualify for the event by playing four rounds -- two each at Southwind and Buffalo Dunes Golf Course -- and turning in her scores to a committee for review.
No man has ever had to take such measures, Colvin admitted.
When a man signs up to play, his handicap is requested, but it has no bearing on his admittance.
"We have tried to create an event that allows the women to play and the men to play," said Colvin, who added that the events are not separated by level of play. "That's the direction we chose to go this year."
And that has Van Norden feeling left out.
"I think what they are doing is wrong, and the truth should be known," she said. "Why didn't they say the old people couldn't play this year because they are too old? They chose women as the class to discriminate against."
There is a bigger issue. Buffalo Dunes, which also will be used for the tournament next weekend, is a city-owned, city-run golf course that exists because of taxpayer funding. However, the city manager of Garden City said its counsel has reviewed the issue and believes the city bears no responsibility for the discrimination that Van Norden alleges.
"We provide the venue," City Manager Matt Allen said. "That's more than a policy perspective, based on my discussion with our legal counsel.
"This issue brought the situation to light."
And Allen is watching closely.
"It's a private event, a private fundraiser," he said. "They get to choose the rules. But it's a high-profile event for our community and we are interested in seeing how it comes out."
The Adams Series Tour is excited about hitching its wagon to a longstanding event like the Southwest Kansas Pro-Am, said Tyler Wohlford, the Adams Series Tour director. The Adams Tour consists of a number of golfers trying to get their professional golf breaks. Most are of the up-and-coming variety, while others have had a taste of the PGA life and are looking to get back.
"Events like this are good for us," Wohlford said. "We have been trying for the last couple of years to partner with this event."
Wohlford said pro-am tournaments are common for a tour that patterns itself after the PGA Tour. In a typical pro-am format, a professional golfer will play with a group of amateurs who have paid handsomely -- either through cash donations or corporate sponsorships -- for the privilege.
As for the pro-am format, Wohlford said the Adams Tour leaves those details to the event committees. There have been women playing at other pro-am tournaments on the Adams Tour, said Wohlford, who chose to steer clear of the discrimination allegations involving the Garden City event.
"It's something we want to avoid at all costs," Wohlford said. "We let the tournament group handle that. The general perspective I got is having only men play is how they were choosing to handle it."
In contrast, the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open takes place next weekend at Crestview Country Club and its annual pro-am tournament on Wednesday include six women golfers.
"We always have women playing," said Roy Turner, the Wichita Open's executive director. "It varies from year to year, but we have never had a rule against women playing."
Garden City's Colvin, who has watched the Southwest Kansas Pro-Am grow from day one and has a passion for it growing into the state's longest-running professional golf tournament, believes in its mission and takes pride in the money raised.
And while it's too late to make changes this year, he is willing to discuss modifications in the future.
"As this tourney continues to evolve, we have typically found the right solution," Colvin said. "Let's hope we find the right solution that is workable for everyone in the near future.
"I don't know what it is, but I hope we find it because this tournament is too good to let it disappear."
And that is where Colvin and Van Norden find common ground.
"I love this event and I love the cause," Van Norden said. "They chose for some reason to not have women play this year and no one has told me why."
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