South Jersey Golf Club That Banned Women Reaches Settlement With State

PINE VALLEY, NJ — It's a longstanding misconception that "golf" stands for "Gentleman Only, Ladies Forbidden." But a South Jersey golf club that had that very policy reached a settlement Wednesday with the state and admitted its first women members.

The state filed a complaint in April 2022 alleging that the Pine Valley Golf Club violated discrimination laws by prohibiting women from membership and restricting their ability to golf and access club facilities. The club only relaxed these policies once the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General began investigating them last year, according to the state.

As part of the settlement, the club will pay $100,000 to the Division of Civil Rights in the AG's Office. The organization will also endow two scholarships totaling $100,000 to support women's participation in golf.

The club also agreed not to discriminate based on sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression or any other class that state-discrimination laws protect.

"Gender-based discrimination violates our laws and is an affront to the values we hold dear, plain and simple," Sundeep Iyer, director of the Division on Civil Rights, said in a statement. "The settlement agreement announced today reflects our ongoing commitment to rooting out gender-based discrimination and ensuring that no one faces such discrimination in employment, housing, or places of public accommodation in our State."

The state's complaint claimed that the 108-year-old golf club had an extensive history of discriminatory practices. Besides exclusionary membership, the club also discriminated against women by tying club membership to the ability to own or lease property on club land. (The tiny borough of Pine Valley, which encompasses the golf club, had a population of 21 as of 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.)

The state also alleged employment discrimination, recruiting primarily via word-of-mouth referrals from mostly men. Fewer than 4 percent of the club's employees were women, according to the April 2022 complaint.

Additionally, club policies prevented men, but not women, from wearing earrings and prohibited employees from discussing their pay — both violations of state discrimination laws.

The settlement included the following provisions:

• The club agrees not to discriminate based on sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or any other protected class in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD).
• The club cannot restrict the lease of land or ownership of private houses based on gender or Club membership status.
• The club will no longer lease land for residential purposes or allow people to own homes on its property, subject to limited exceptions.
• The club must provide all people — including women, transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex individuals — equal opportunities to obtain employment with the organization.
• The club cannot on word-of-mouth recruitment as its primary method of recruiting employees.
• The club will publicly post all future job openings such that they are equally accessible to people of all genders, and must advertise at least 75 percent of its job openings in at least two major online job-posting websites.
• The club is prohibited from barring any employee from wearing earrings at work on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, or gender expression.
• The club cannot prohibit or forbid any employee from appearing, grooming, or dressing consistent with the employee’s gender, gender identity, or gender expression.
• The club cannot prohibit or forbid any employee from discussing pay or compensation.
• The club must provide an interactive anti-discrimination training to all of its employees that addresses state anti-discrimination laws, including the LAD.

The scholarship endowment will support a scholarship through the J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship program for the benefit of women caddies’ education and Rutgers University's women's golf team.

The settlement imposes regular compliance reporting, including the club's submission of annual reports to the state regarding its changes in employment and housing.