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Charlotte Mayorkas is following in the footsteps of Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam but without all the hype.

The star of the UCLA women’s golf NCAA Championship team will be the only woman competing at the California State Open starting today in Murrieta.

On top of that, Mayorkas and her teammates will be the only women’s team to play at the Gold Rush, a tournament for California’s collegiate teams, in late September. The UCLA women’s golf team will be the lone team comprised of women in the field.

Mayorkas and her Bruin teammates should be encouraged and congratulated for their willingness to compete with the guys. UCLA men’s golf coach and Gold Rush coordinator O.D. Vincent should also be acknowledged for his progressive thinking by inviting the UCLA women’s team to the event.

Mayorkas and her teammates will have their critics, saying they shouldn’t be there. Some may even add, “Why can’t a guy play in a women’s tournament?” or “It would be too demoralizing for a guy to lose to a girl,” or “They already have their own tournaments that they can play in.”

And I say to the critics, “Why not let them play?”

Any guy who would hate being beaten by a woman simply because of her gender has some personal issues to take care of.

What’s the worst thing that could happen? Mayorkas plays the best golf she’s ever played, beats a lot of guys, and helps the sport of women’s golf grow?

Women should be given the same opportunity as men to play sports in this country. Just because men have a biological advantage over women in most sports doesn’t mean all women should be excluded from playing with the men, and it definitely does not mean that women’s sports are inferior to men’s sports.

If a woman is good enough to play in men’s leagues, why not let her play?

Mayorkas has proven she is one of the elite women’s collegiate golfers in the country. It is natural for any athlete to want a tougher level of competition once he or she has mastered the level of play he or she is currently at.

Would you keep a baseball player who is tearing it up in the minor leagues away from the majors for very long?

Would you teach algebra to someone who is ready for calculus?

I would love to see the top female golfers in the country go to Q-school and earn a PGA Tour card.

I would have loved to see Venus Williams and Serena Williams – in their prime when they were playing against each other in seemingly every tournament final – try to compete on the men’s tennis tour.

Why? Because sports in their purest sense are about seeing who is the best, regardless of physical attributes like height, weight, race or gender.

I know of at least one woman who can compete with the guys quite well:

Jennie Finch.

Granted, softball and baseball are slightly different sports, especially when it comes to pitching.

But Finch, the U.S. Olympic Softball star, as part of her role on the television show “This Week in Baseball,” faced dozens of major league hitters last year. Not one of them ever got a solid hit off of her. In fact, very few hitters even made contact. Finch made some of the top hitters in the world look foolish while doing what they do best.

I don’t mean that I expect Mayorkas or the UCLA women’s golf team to be dominating against the men. Men on average hit the ball farther than the women. It’s a biological advantage the women will have to overcome.

But if they can overcome it, the door will open for even more women to play against the men down the road.

Once some women start beating men at sports regularly, it won’t seem so bad anymore for insecure guys when they lose.

Yes, Quiñonez is the same columnist who many of you called a male chauvinist after he bashed gymnastics.

E-mail him at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.