3 Female Members Sue Country Club, Charging Sex Bias

Three female members of the Mission Viejo Country Club have filed a lawsuit alleging that the club discriminates against women by making it difficult for them to golf with their female friends.

The lawsuit also says that the club illegally bars women from eating at a male-only luxury lounge.

“There is absolutely no reason for it,” said Michelle A. Reinglass, a Laguna Hills lawyer who filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of members Kathleen Kellogg, Marguerite L. Skinner and Lorna Henricks. “The club needs to be opened up.”

Van Rhebeck, president of the golf course’s board of directors, said he needs to study the lawsuit before commenting on it.

But Max DeLiema, a lawyer and former board member familiar with the case, denied any wrongdoing. “We’ve never discriminated against women,” he said. “Women have all the privileges that men do.”

Membership Types

According to the lawsuit, the problem stems from the two types of memberships offered by the club--designated as “gold” and “green”--which determine when a member can play. Because club regulations require married couples sharing a membership to each accept a different designation, the lawsuit contends, many married women are forced to accept the “green” membership, which comes with less desirable tee times.

As a result, the lawsuit says, “female members who opted for the superior ‘Gold’ membership were denied the opportunity to play golf with female friends on ‘Green’ days.”

As for the male-only luxury lounge, the lawsuit says, it was built with funds contributed by both genders and therefore ought to be open to both. “All members, including women,” Reinglass said, “should be treated the same with full and equal rights.”

According to DeLiema, that’s already what happens at the club. Married couples, he said, can opt to buy individual memberships and choose whichever tee times they want. And the lounge, he said, is not open to women because it is part of the men’s locker room.

“The women have a lounge too,” he said, “and men don’t go in there. Apparently these women are saying that they’d rather eat in the men’s locker room than in the women’s locker room.”

The lawsuit is the latest in a long series of legal actions filed against Orange County golf courses in recent years alleging gender discrimination.