Billy Payne, it was a fun dance
It was April 2012, and Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne was sitting behind an elegant desk at his annual Masters news conference, twisting himself into a pretzel trying to defend something he knew was indefensible, the club’s continued exclusion of women members.
He had just spoken passionately about his concern for the lack of growth in golf, mentioning junior and international programs the club was championing.
“Impressive efforts, I hope, but not enough,” he said. “We can do better.”
There was a question that had to be asked. Noting Payne’s concerns about golf ’s future and also noting that Augusta National is a very public touchstone for the game, a reporter simply said, “Don’t you think it would send a wonderful message to young girls around the world if they knew that one day they could join this very famous golf club?”
The Billy Payne I had known for 25 years to that point would have leaned into the microphone and, in his familiar Georgia drawl, issued a resounding “yes.” But this Billy Payne unfortunately could not do that, not quite yet. He was in the final months of what was for him a very delicate dance balancing the club’s substantial old guard and its love of its traditions with the increasingly pressing need to modernize not only Augusta National, but the game of golf itself.
That day, Payne reached for Augusta National’s tried and true talking points.
“That deals with a membership issue, and I’m not going to answer it.”
The reporter disagreed. Other journalists jumped in, noting the contradiction. Payne held his ground. It was not a pretty sight.
It should come as no surprise that little more than four months later, Payne (who announced his retirement as Augusta National chairman Wednesday) took care of the issue once and for all, inviting former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and business executive Darla Moore to become the club’s first two female members. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty joined a couple of years later.
Payne as well as others at the club have always maintained there was no cause and effect involved, that the decision to admit women members was a work in progress, slow as that seemed. I believe that. I think the day that Payne became chairman, May 21,
2006, was the day that he started planning to bring women members into the club. It just took him longer than I — and maybe even he — expected.
Payne and I go back to 1987, when he was a 40-year-old real estate attorney in Atlanta with a crazy dream: to bring the Summer Olympics back to the USA in
1996, 12 years after they had last been here, in Los Angeles in 1984.
I was The Washington Post’s Olympics reporter, and I spent dozens of hours with Payne — in his Atlanta office, at U.S. Olympic Committee events and at International Olympic Committee meetings around the world. We talked about his strategy to win
the Games. We also talked about other things, like our shared love of The Sound of Music.
I can safely say there is no man on earth who has seen that movie more often than Billy Payne. One time I was interviewing him, we took a break so we could go through the songs one by one. A little singing was involved.
Atlanta did win the right to host the Games, and Payne came up with a unique idea: to make golf an Olympic sport again, with this kicker — he would stage the competition at Augusta National. He also was going to demand that the competition include women.
At the time he was not a member of the club, and he knew that women were not allowed to be members, but as he told me several times as I worked on the story, his idea was to show those old men of Augusta National what women could do.
As things turned out, the idea
died a quick death because the Olympics could not hold any events at a place that discriminated against women. Nonetheless, Payne was on his way. On his watch, the Atlanta Olympics became known as the “Women’s Olympics” for the tremendous success of U.S. women in soccer, softball, basketball, gymnastics and swimming, among others.
When Payne became chairman of Augusta National, there were times when I grilled him on the women’s membership issue and times when I praised him for his efforts to open up the game, including the idea to bring girls and boys onto the venerable course for the annual Drive, Chip and Putt championship the Sunday before Masters week. Inviting as many new people as possible to experience golf will always be a part of Payne’s enormous legacy.
Just a few months ago, at the Masters, I asked Payne what now
has turned out to be my last question of him as chairman. Because he had famously lectured Tiger Woods about his behavior at the
2010 Masters, I was wondering if he was comfortable with President Trump’s close association to golf, considering his behavior and comments during the election.
Payne really didn’t like my question. I really didn’t like his answer. We have been at this for
30 years, so neither of us should have been surprised.
Only now do I know what I should have done next: a proper salute, a gesture so obvious it was right there in front of me, waiting to be sung.
I know you know the words, Billy.
“So Long, Farewell.”