African American women were playing too slowly. Then they called the police.

By Rachel Siegel April 24 at 4:02 PM

Five African American women say they were discriminated against at a Pennsylvania golf club when they were told they were taking too long on the course — and then the police were called.

On Saturday morning, the women — who, according to local media, were experienced golfers and part of a group called Sisters in the Fairway — teed off at Grandview Golf Course in York County. The women told the York Daily Record that they were told by the club’s owners they were not keeping a quick-enough pace. The club offered to refund their memberships and then called 911.

The confrontation follows a spate of similar confrontations among businesses, their customers or members, and the police. From the arrests of two African American men at a Philadelphia Starbucks to a 911 call made on two African American men working out at a New Jersey gym, the incidents have reignited racial tensions in commercial spaces and cast scrutiny on how law enforcement and companies respond.

“I felt we were discriminated against,” one of the women, Myneca Ojo, told the York Daily Record. “It was a horrific experience.

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Women say they faced racial, gender discrimination at central Pa. golf course

Ted Czech, Published 6:54 p.m. ET April 22, 2018 | Updated 2:19 p.m. ET April 24, 2018

Five African-American women say the ownership and staff at Grandview Golf Club in Dover Township discriminated against them based on their color and gender during an incident at the course on Saturday.

The women — Sandra Thompson, 50; Myneca Ojo, 56; sisters Sandra Harrison, 59, and Carolyn Dow, 56, and Karen Crosby, 58 — were at first told they were not keeping the pace of play by former York County Commissioner Steve Chronister, who they said told them he was the club's owner.

Later, the women were told they had taken too long of a break between the first and second halves of the course. They were then asked to leave, offered their membership money refunded, and the police were called.

The women say no one else at the club was treated the way they were.

"I felt we were discriminated against," Ojo said Sunday. "It was a horrific experience."

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