Augusta boss skirts gender issue
Early Thursday morning, if the weather co-operates, golfing immortals Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player will hit ceremonial tee shots to begin the 76th Masters toona-mint.
The television bumph behind the softly tinkling piano music calls it a tradition like no other and that much is true; there is no place like Augusta National — both in a good and bad way.
The good is obvious: this is the best-run event in golf, if not sports. The most beautifully manicured course in America, at least, doesn’t contain an advertising sign or a corporate tent. The fabled pimiento-cheese sandwiches still cost $1.50, but the Masters still raises millions for charity. But the bad side exists and reappeared Wednesday as club chairman Billy Payne once again skated great circles around the request even to talk about the possibility of a woman as a club member.
If ever it is going to be easy for Augusta to escape this story and start including the other half of the population, it’s right now. The chance is sitting on a silver plate. Traditionally, the CEO of IBM, one of the Masters’ three main sponsors, has been admitted to the order of the green jacket, as are the heads of Exxon Mobil and AT&T. Now that the CEO of IBM is Virginia (Ginni) Rometty, it would be simple for the club to break one tradition by carrying on another. Other than timing, they wouldn’t soak up an ounce of criticism for doing it.
Yet when the question was put — and put again and skilfully, too — Payne simply turtled. He said all membership issues are a club matter and not discussed in public. This has been the fallback refrain for years and is an acceptable answer for those who don’t wish to pursue the matter, specifically those who say it’s not up to me to tell you whom to invite into your house.
The difference this time is that Payne had given copious detail about the club recognizing the declining participation rate in golf worldwide and the need to make the game accessible to young people to keep the pipeline full of future fanatics. Payne rattled off the list of initiatives to bring young people into the game, at which point the logical question arose: Why talk about growing and spreading the game when you, yourself, eliminate half the population? It’s a stretch to think that every little girl who picks up a golf club immediately would dream about joining Augusta National but, in theory, it’s a great question because of the hypocrisy it exposes. Payne didn’t want to hear it and wouldn’t address it. One lady asked him how he, as a grandfather, would explain the situation to his own granddaughters. Payne again cited privacy issues. (Shortly afterward that same reporter was summoned by press room loudspeaker to the front desk. There was ominous laughter and one Internet columnist suggested she take her playbook with her. Turns out it was merely a visitor come calling, but it brought a welcome moment of levity to the morning.) The next move in this little sub-drama might be up to IBM. More than 20 years ago, IBM led the corporate pullout of TV sponsorship from the PGA Championship when it was played at Shoal Creek, an Alabama club that excluded blacks. Augusta National began admitting blacks shortly thereafter, but how would it react now if IBM pulled the corporate plug if indeed its CEO is snubbed on a gender issue now? There’s no question the golf these next four days should be outstanding and that it will produce its own kind of high drama, because it always does. But this other issue could be equally entertaining in its own way.