John Mabanglo/EPA
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Once again, the membership at the host club of The Masters is back in the spotlight.
During the annual press conference with Augusta National Golf Club chairman, Billy Payne, the subject of its male-only membership was not only broached, but called into question. In a session with the assembled media which lasted just over 30 minutes, Payne was repeatedly bombarded with questions about why Augusta National not only has yet to admit a female member, but its refusal to answer why.
Payne — as has been the case in previous statements on the matter — tried to sidestep the issue, saying that the club does not discuss its membership policies in public.
“Well, as has been the case whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to the private deliberations of the members and that statement remains accurate and remains my statement,” Payne said.
This time the absence of female members in Green Jackets at Augusta National isn’t because of protests outside the gates or public cries for change.
It stems from a Bloomberg report one week ago, which brought up the quandary that Augusta National will likely face. Historically, the club has always extended a membership to the CEO of IBM. But with the company naming a new CEO last fall in Ginni Rometty, Augusta National will either have to admit its first female member or not invite the CEO of IBM for the first time.
When pressed on the issue further, Payne elaborated slightly.
“One, we don’t talk about our private deliberations,” Payne said. “No. 2, we especially don’t talk about it when a named candidate is a part of the question.”
While Rometty was clearly the vehicle for the continuing line of questioning Wednesday morning, questions of a lack of a female member persisted.
Earlier in his press conference, Payne referenced the notion that Augusta National and The Masters should be a way to grow the game of golf in the United States. In the final statements of his opening remarks about the state of the club and the tournament, Payne made it clear about the intent to help the game blossom.
“I cannot close my remarks today without joining the growing chorus of golf organizations expressing their concerns about the absence of growth in golf and especially among the younger demographic,” he stated. “We are trying to do our part, as has been evidenced by the significant annual contributions we make to many domestic and international golf organizations.”
Payne was then pressed on how he would explain his club’s policy on women to his granddaughters.
“Well, my conversations with my granddaughters are also personal,” he said.
This all following a tense back-and-forth between two reporters who continued to hammer at Payne on the issue, where he cut them off stating the club’s policy and then saying, “Thank you.”
Nine years ago, the start of The Masters was clouded somewhat by the protests of Martha Burk outside the club’s gates. Is this once again going to overshadow the beginning of the first major championship of the golf season or reflect negatively on the club? Despite the contentious atmosphere of his press conference Wednesday, Payne doesn’t think so.
“I think there’s certainly a difference of opinion on that and I don’t think I have formed an opinion on that,” he said. “But certainly there’s people (who) have different opinions on that subject.”
Contributor Brendan Prunty is the golf writer for the Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey. He can be reached at bprunty@starledger.com and can be followed at Twitter.com/BrendanPrunty. This is his second Masters tournament.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-04/augusta-national-chairman-payne-won-t-address-female-membership
Your headline needs to be corrected.
“While Augusta National has no formal policy against female members, it hasn’t admitted one in its eight decades.”
I think if we answer an important question, we can probably get the ANGC to relent. What drives the TV viewership, online clicks for various blog posts (this included) and “patrons” vying for a chance to get into those gates ? A chance to see the best golfers playing on an immaculately manicured, historically significant and challenging golf course.
Now, we cannot change the latter, but the former is something we can work on. Why does Cypress Point no longer host the AT&T Pro Am? Its something to think about.. What if the PGA, European PGA, Asian, etc.. What if all the Professional Golf Associations mandate their players, that to hold a tour card, or be exempted, they should play only in golf clubs that do not discriminate on who they take on as members? If the players do not agree, they lose their tour privileges??
The Masters might still go on as a tournament, but without the top professionals, is it still going to have the same draw? How many professionals will do the right thing and not participate in the Masters? Will it still be a major ? Golf is global enough now that you can take away the Masters and have another tournament that goes around the world every year as a major.
I don’t know why scribes don’t post the question to PGA as to why official rankings/points are given to tournaments hosted in clubs that discriminate against members. Billy Payne won’t change, we get the idea, the players can’t do it as everybody won’t cooperate. We got to start somewhere, and maybe the PGAs everywhere are what we need to question.
P.S. Great blog Ms Wei, I’m a big fan.. keep it going!
Where are all the poor discriminated men crying out in their attempt to join those female only gym or golf clubs. Thats right – there aren´t any. No sane male would get the idea of joining a female only golf club. And there are reasons for that. But yet every year again this story comes up stirred up by some feminist groups and distributed blindly through the press. And no – the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights wont help you with your case!
How about – you women get out there, create your own PRIVATE golf club, run it well over – a couple years and host a LPGA Masters tourney. Well, nobody would really care as the LPGA TV quotes show and you certainly wouldn´t have men banging at the doors to let them in, , but at least you tried to compete. And the last i checked, the US is not exactly the land of equality and since the super rich are still allowed to pay less taxes than you on your five figure income, backed by political forces, i just assume those memberships to golf heaven will have “Access denied” written all over them.
Yea that’s the KKK’s argument too, kafka01. Well done.
Yes Salander, those of us who believe in the right of private clubs to determine their own memberships are on the side of the KKK. Well done.
There is something in the headline, very often repeated, that bothers me, and that is the assertion that ANGC has a “policy” the prohibits female membership. Does anyone actually KNOW this to be true? Does ANGC actually have a written membership policy that only males may be admitted to membership? I have always doubted that this actually exists.
I am expecting the Ms. Rometty will be granted membership as her predecessors were before. I am equally expecting that NOBODY at ANGC will ever breathe a word of it. I had secretly hoped that at the end of his press conference, Payne would publicly thank and present on stage the CEOs of AT&T, Exxon/Mobil and IBM, ALL replendent in green jackets, and say nothing more about it. It would have brought a Masters roar heard around the world.
And I thought this was going to be the year that Billy caved and revealed ANGC policies to all.
Again, this is an issue because of ANGC official role in the game of golf – it is an official tournament, with official money and official world ranking points.
This is not about private clubs that have no stature in the game. Like Burning Tree GC for instance. It does not even allow females to play the course as a guest. But they aren’t influencing the game by partipating on rules/competition/organizational committees and they aren’t subsidized by CBS, IBM, AT&T and Exxon Mobil.
Marky- No one is forcing CBS, IBM, ATT and Exxon to subsidize ANGC. Obviously those companies think that they are gaining more business than they are losing due to their association with the event. ANGC could go pay per view and triple broadcast revenue.
Likely, there are members of Burning Tree or other exclusionary clubs that participate on important committees as well.
What they do is no different than other private clubs, they just do it exceptionally well.
For the record, it would be cool to see them offer membership to someone like Peggy Kirk Bell. But it is their call, and I fully support their right to internally decide their own membership criteria.
>This is not about private clubs that have no stature in the game.
Come on – lets get real here. Nice image they portray for the game. A club full of elitist super rich guys playing golf where about 99.9999999999% of all golfers in the world will never have a chance access no matter what gender they are.
And you worry about a possible discrimination against women, while they discriminate just as much against you as they do against me… Yeah right..
Does anyone know how much is the membership fee for ANGC? Consider how the clubs only open a few months in the year, no well thinking Female who only play sporadically would care to put up the large $$ (I presume) for such a benefit(sic).
Incidentally, I checked back to years ago when Blacks who were on the Tour was never invited to play in the Masters until 1975, and there were no outrage or boycott from the players. Do you seriously believe that players would boycott because of membership policies? Get real!!
ANGC does not disclose how much memberships costs but it is rumored to be very cheap actually. They say roughly $10K a year which nothing in terms of country club memberships. They are able to keep the membership fee so low because of the television rights and corporate sponsors. They are all filthy rich and own everything anyway. No sense in trading money…
To claim that women discriminate against men just the same displays a huge lack of understanding about just what discrimination is and why we have rules/laws against it.
Discrimination is always toward the minority, or the powerless, or the mistreated. Anyone who screams “oh men have it bad too!” or “whites are discriminated just the same!” is entirely missing the point. (And is a man or white.)
There is no question that this is some sort of power play over women. But I do think there is a fair question about if this is actually an explicit policy of exclusion or what. While the situation here certainly is more complex than normal outrage may portray it, the end effect is, indeed, not complex at all. Women are being summarily dismissed from inclusion by a powerful and public group. That’s not a good thing.
This CEO is a good instance here, because she is qualified by literally every other factor (business success, wealth, etc.). So we’ll know soon enough what their policy is…
Marky Mark — you’ve got it exactly right. I don’t understand why this issue causes so many people to defend discrimination on the grounds of personal liberty. The issue here is not ANGC’s membership policy (or tradition, since they have no official policy regarding women). The issue, rather, is AGNC’s membership policy in light of the club’s public role within international golf.
The old argument that AGNC and The Masters Tournament are different entities is completely absurd: if that’s true, then how about playing The Masters at East Lake next year? And the stonewall defense that AGNC will not discuss private deliberations in public is ridiculous. Next year Chairman Payne will presumably have no trouble discussing his Task Force’s recommendations for growing the game.
Some private golf clubs are exclusively male or female. So what? A policy of exclusion is not necessarily one of discrimination. It’s a communal choice, and if members are comfortable in that environment and support the policy, then good for them. But I don’t think you can be a major player in international golf, professing your commitment to growing the game, and continue to support exclusionary membership policies. The same principle should apply to St Andrews, which no one mentions in this discussion. Does anyone know if it change its membership policy? http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/28/st-andrews-golf-female-members
Finally, St. Andrews raises an interesting point: the difference between the private golf club and the R&A as a governing organization. The US Open and the Open Championship are held at private clubs around the US and Britain. If one of those clubs excluded on the basis of gender or race, then the USGA or R&A would get heat for taking the championship there, not just the club itself for having the policy. (Why no one discusses gender-based clubs in the UK is beyond me.) The governing body could just take the tournament to another club whose policies align with its principles. AGNC is such a complex case because it represents both the governing body and the tournament venue. It needs to admit that and do what’s right for golf and golf’s image.
I hope they release a statement later this summer saying that they offered Rometty a membership as soon as she became CEO.
I call BS on you media types. The Golf Media is exclusively White and Male with a few exceptions. The Golfworld is one big incestuous institution. I love Golf.. this Sport can’t get out of it’s own way. It’s comical to be sure.
Augusta National is a hypocritical in it’s statements.. so is the Golfworld.. Reference Olympic Club in San Francisco for a Club that includes everyone
If ANGC wants to continue acting like good ‘ol boys and be an exclusively male club, that’s their right to do so, but the PGA Tour should cancel the Masters as an official Tour event and remove ANGC from the rotation a la Cypress Point and Shoal Creek.
Then, if a bunch of millionaire golfers want to continue to show up for the Masters as some “private invitational,” let them have it.
This might hurt pro golf for a while, but people would eventually get over it, and maybe even make room for The Players Championship to become a major, a well deserved honor in my opinion.
I agree 100% Al. You can’t be the “pinnacle of the sport” and be exclusionary. Just sends the wrong message anyway you look at it.
I second that too Al.
And I dream of playing Augusta. no, seriously, I dream about it.
Great information on sponsor. I was wondering where I can host.
I’ve been exploring for a little bit for any high-quality articles or weblog posts on this sort of house . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this website. Studying this information So i’m glad to convey that I have an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I came upon just what I needed. I such a lot no doubt will make certain to don?t omit this site and give it a look regularly.