Not even Bubba Watson’s Masters Tournament-winning hook shot can remove the sour taste the Augusta National Gold Club has left in my mouth.
Every year, the golf world’s focus is drawn to Augusta, Georgia, where professional golfers from around the world compete for the most prized trophy of the PGA, the green jacket.
It’s a prestigious honor to play the historic course and an even more prestigious honor to be a member of the club. Notable members have included Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Jack Welch.
Augusta also has a tradition of welcoming executives of the major companies sponsoring the Masters into the club.
For years, IBM has been a major sponsor for the tournament and all previous chief executives have been invited to join.
But, when Virginia Rometty was named the new chief executive of IBM earlier this year, the tradition of IBM’s CEOs being welcomed into the club ended.
This wasn’t because the club’s policies changed; in fact, it’s far from that. Rometty wasn’t welcome because she’s a woman.
The Augusta National Golf Club is one of the most prominent places where such blatant bigotry is still displayed on a national level.
Each year, golfers play the Master’s Tournament and each year viewers are reminded of the inequality that still exists in this nation.
But, inequality in the tournament isn’t anything new. Augusta used to require all caddies to be black. In fact, black males weren’t allowed membership into the club until 1990.
Sure, Augusta may have dipped their bigoted toe into the equality pool by allowing other races, but the club still restricts 50 percent of the population from even having a chance at membership.
The current chairman of Augusta, Billy Payne, has remained mum on the subject of not inviting Rometty to the club. That is to be expected. Since its establishment in 1933, Augusta has dodged the subject of equality. As the club’s current leader, Payne has been bred to continue this tradition of dodging questions about his club’s bigoted crimes. I am asking Payne to tear down this wall.
Tear down this wall that Augusta hides behind that is spray-painted with the words “sexism,” “inequality” and “bigotry.”
Augusta has maintained that it’s their right to keep their club all male. In 2002, a similar controversy arose as former chair of the National Council of Women’s Organization, Martha Burk, called for former Augusta chairmen, Hootie Johnson, to change their all male policy.
Johnson replied in a NewHour Media Unit interview, “Our membership is single gender just as many other organizations and clubs all across America. These would include Junior Leagues, sororities, fraternities, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and countless others. And we all have a moral and legal right to organize our clubs the way we wish.”
Yes, Augusta is a private club and it is entitled to its own rules. But, in no way should Augusta be compared to unisex clubs like fraternities, sororities, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. With these clubs there is at least an equivalent in which both sexes can individually be involved.
There is only one Augusta National golf course. One golf course so rich with history and beauty, that it’s unfair for women to be denied the honor of playing it.
Maybe the only way to change the Augusta National Golf Club is to be unfair to them. Move the Master’s Tournament to a golf course where the club is more progressive and fair.
By moving the Masters, some may say the tournament wouldn’t be the same. Those who say that are correct. No longer would such a classless club represent one of the classiest tournaments in all of sports. The Master’s would be changed for the better.
Chasen Doerr is a senior journalism major and assitant opinions editor for the Daily 49er.
