Pine Valley Golf Club has settled a gender-bias lawsuit with New Jersey, which alleged the 109-year-old club had a membership policy that once explicitly prohibited women from joining.
The club in Camden County, which has been ranked No. 1 in the world by Golf Magazine in 2019 and 2020, agreed to pay $100,000 to the state’s Division on Civil Rights and endow two scholarships to support the participation of women in sports, Attorney General Matthew Platkin said Wednesday in a statement. The club will also end discriminatory housing and employment practices, Platkin said.
Pine Valley lifted its men-only membership policy in April 2021 amid the state investigation, according to the administrative complaint filed a year later. By July 2021, the 700-member club admitted three “renowned” women golfers as members, including one considered the best in the history of the sport, the complaint said.
“New Jersey will not tolerate gender-based discrimination, and those who violate our laws will be held accountable,” Platkin said in his statement.
A spokesman for the club didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Until May 2021, the club denied women the ability to use its course, facilities and lodging, except as a guest of a member during certain Sunday hours, according to the complaint. The state also claimed that only six of 159 employees were women, and they had little contact with members. The club also leased land to members for houses, which were limited through restrictive covenants to men.
Under the settlement, the club agreed to end discrimination based on gender; bar leasing of land based on gender or club membership status; and provide everyone, including women, transgender and non-binary people, a chance to work at the club, according to Platkin.
The club, which hosts the prestigious Crump Cup for amateurs, has welcomed plenty of pro golfers. Arnold Palmer, whose 62 US PGA Tour wins rank fifth all-time, was just out of the Coast Guard when Pine Valley members bet him that he couldn’t break 80 his first time on the course. Palmer, who died in 2016, shot 68 and used the money to buy an engagement ring for his late wife.