First woman to compete on men's Tour

Suzy Whaley will play in the Greater Hartford Open in July, and by doing so will become the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event.

The 36-year-old professional from Connecticut earned a place in the field by winning a qualifying event against men in September.

"I took a long time to make this decision," Whaley said yesterday. "I understand the historical implications of this decision, and the importance it has for women golfers."

She qualified for the event, which takes place on the Tournament Players' Club course at River Highlands in Cromwell, by winning the PGA Connecticut Sectional in September: she is the first woman to achieve this. Whaley played from a forward set of tees, meaning that she played a course 10 per cent shorter than the men, at the Ellington Ridge Country Club.

With her mother as her caddie, Whaley shot a one-under-par 71 in the final round of the sectional championship, coming from behind to win with an aggregate score of 211, five under par. At the Greater Hartford Open she will have to play from the same tees as the men.

"It's a lot longer than I'm used to playing," Whaley said. "I'm going to do it the best I possibly can, and that's going to have to be good enough."

Whaley played on the golf team when she went to the University of North Carolina and has competed on the LPGA Tour. A PGA Tour spokesman, Bob Combs, said yesterday: "As we've said all along, if she chose to play we'd be delighted to welcome here as a contestant, and we look forward to having her in the field at next year's event."

The tournament chairman, Dan Baker, said: "From the moment she qualified, we thought that it would be great to have a woman golf professional play in the GHO. She's a competitor and a player, and she can get the ball in the hole very well."

Several PGA Tour players expressed support for Whaley. "I think it's pretty cool," Tiger Woods said. "She went out there and she earned her right. She beat everybody in the field, and that's what you have to do."

A former chief executive officer of CBS became the first member of the Augusta National Golf Club to resign in protest over the club's refusal to admit a woman member.

Thomas H Wyman, a 25-year member of Augusta National, said that the position of the club chairman, Hootie Johnson, not to admit women was unacceptable and "pigheaded". He estimated that as many as one-quarter of the club membership – approximately 300 men – also support the admission of women.

"I am not anxious to make this personal," Wyman said. "But Hootie keeps writing that there has not been a single case of protest in the membership.

"There are obviously some redneck, old-boy types down there, but there are a lot of very thoughtful, rational people in the membership and they feel as strongly as I do."