Bach raps Tokyo golf club over all-male policy

Olympics chief Thomas Bach ramped up pressure on the private club named to host the Tokyo 2020 golf tournament yesterday, reminding it to start admitting women as full members or face being replaced.

Bach said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was "very clear" that it would look elsewhere if the Kasumigaseki Country Club failed to change its admissions policy.

The IOC president was speaking after Scotland's prestigious Muirfield club this week voted to allow women members, ditching a rule which had stood for 273 years and had stripped it of its eligibility to host Britain's Open championship.

"We're very clear that only a venue which is offering equal access to men and women can be an Olympic venue," Bach told reporters in South Korea's Pyeongchang, host of next year's Winter Olympics.

"We're still confident that this venue (Kasumigaseki) will deliver. If they don't deliver, it will be another venue." 
- AFP