Since the 76th Masters Tournament is being held this week, I ask you to invest a few minutes of your time to understand seven important points about women golfers and Augusta National Golf Club, a private golf club (not a country club!) in Augusta, Georgia.
(1) AUGUSTA NATIONAL SHOULD HAVE FOUR FEMALE MEMBERS BY NOW...
...and that is because the Club has always had, among their members, captains of business and industry as well as accomplished amateur golfers. The club's co-founder was the legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones, who won 13 major championships during his playing career, after which he retired from golf in 1930 at age 28. Jones is still almost universally regarded as the greatest amateur golfer who ever played.
Among the greatest amateur golfers that were friends of Bobby Jones were women. Jones described Glenna Collett-Vare (right), as having "typified all that the word 'sportsmanship' stands for." Mrs. Vare (1903-1989) won a slew of U.S. and Canadian amateur championships (right), and was so dominant that the LPGA named their annual tournament scoring award after her. Another close friend of Jones was U.S. Women's Amateur Champion Marion Hollins (1892-1944), who influenced Jones to hire Alister Mackenzie to design Augusta National. Jones was also a longtime friend of Alexa Stirling (1897-1977), who won three consecutive U.S. Women's Amateur Championships.
In this writer's opinion, Augusta National should already have the following four women as members:
(a) Carol Semple, previously known as Carol Semple-Thompson, has dominated women's amateur golf in the modern era like no other player. Not only does she have seven United States Golf Association championships to her credit, but she has played in twelve (!) Curtis Cup matches and was captain of two winning United States Curtis Cup teams in 2006 and 2008. As an administrator, Semple served on the USGA's Executive Committee from 1994 until 2000. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008 – a bit late IMHO, but inducted nonetheless.
(b) Nancy Lopez, who is basically as important and accomplished a golfer, and beloved by golf fans, as is Arnold Palmer. Three times a major champion, Lopez was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987 and IMHO should have been welcomed as a member at Augusta National on the same day that Arnold Palmer formally became a member. She is a living legend of golf, period.
(c) Dr. Condoleeza Rice, who is more than just a former U.S. Secretary of State who happens to play golf; this Stanford University professor is a serious enthusiast of the game and a current member of the USGA's Nominating Committee. In September of 2009, Dr. Rice became a member at Shoal Creek Golf Club in her native Birmingham, Alabama. Considering Shoal Creek's shameful past history (see below), Dr. Rice's membership there is not to be taken lightly.
(d) Virginia Rometty is not in the World Golf Hall of Fame, but that is because she has been busy being an electrical engineer and, as of January 1, 2012, the new CEO and President of IBM. As Jeff Shain of the Orlando Sentinel has pointed out, Augusta National has included CEOs of IBM among their membership since the 1980s. Rometty certainly deserves to be included among the captains of industry who are members at Augusta National – on her own merits, not merely because of club tradition.
(2) WOMEN ALREADY PLAY GOLF AT AUGUSTA NATIONAL
Over the years, women golfers – both famous (Nancy Lopez, Karrie Webb, etc.) and not famous (other women invited by club members) – have played golf at Augusta National Golf Club for decades, either as guests of the club and/or guests of a club member. Remember that any non-member (man or woman) needs to be "well-connected" to a club member in order to be invited to play there, as it is at thousands of private clubs around the world.
(3) A WOMEN-ONLY GOLF CLUB EXISTS, TOO!
Yes, believe it or not, Ladies Golf Club of Toronto is real and opened in 1924 in Thornhill, Ontario. And just like their counterparts at Augusta National, this club permits guests of the opposite sex to play golf here – including as "guest card-holders."
(4) AUGUSTA NATIONAL HAS SUPPORTED WOMEN'S GOLF FOR DECADES
Over the last two decades, Augusta National has given tremendous financial support to the Ladies Professional Golf Association, which includes both the tournament division and their Teaching & Club Professional division. Increasing numbers of female golf instructors are working to obtain LPGA teaching certification – and that is excellent news for any woman or girl who specifically wants to learn the game from other women.
In fact, I know that *any* LPGA-certified instructor could teach me hundreds of things necessary to improve my game – especially my short-game and trouble shots. If you are a woman or girl thinking about taking up the game, you can find an LPGA teaching professional here.
Augusta National also was among the first clubs that gave financial and logistical support to The First Tee, which was designed specifically to introduce children (young and older) not only to the game of golf, but also to help them build personal character and integrity. The First Tee is especially helpful to children from lower-income households by providing equipment and financial assistance donated by golfers like me, as well as institutional sponsors and corporate supporters.
People should also know that the members and administration of Augusta National have contributed vast sums of money and logistical support to the United States Golf Association, the organization that not only oversees the rules of golf in the United States, but also administers eight women's and girls' national championships, along with the semi-annual Curtis Cup.
In fact, after the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1996 Olympic Summer Games to Atlanta, the club made a bid to host men's and women's Olympic golf events at Augusta National. Perversely, it was the Angry Left and political-correctness ghouls who had a meltdown over women playing Olympic golf at Augusta National because this private club does not yet have any women as members.
(5) AUGUSTA NATIONAL IS A PRIVATE CLUB...
...and as such, they decide who will be invited to become club members. Without doubt, racism was previously a serious problem at Augusta National; in the old days, all of the members were white and all of the club's caddies were black – regardless of whether their ancestry was from the Caribbean, the West Indies, Africa, or elsewhere. Obviously, this problem has long since been corrected.
The fact is that nobody has the power to force Augusta National to have women as club members – certainly not Martha Burk, the socialist activist who very publicly melted down in 2002 over Augusta National's invitation-only membership. Based on her unprofessional behavior and her past writings suggesting that some men should undergo forced sterilization, Ms. Burk is the kind of person who should be regarded not merely as some screaming-and-hollering cross between Saul Alinsky, Chicken Little, and a tornado siren, but also as seriously disturbed, if not borderline sub-psychotic.
By the way, "golf clubs" are not necessarily the same thing as "country clubs." If you are not a golf enthusiast, you might be surprised to learn that a good many private *golf clubs* have rather spartan clubhouses and facilities, whereas country clubs typically have lavish and luxurious facilities such as high-end dining rooms, tennis courts, swimming pools, etc. Golf clubs focus entirely on golf, period.
The real problem in golf is *not* Augusta National, where women play golf as guests of members almost every day of the year that the course is open. Instead, the real target of indignation and action should be men-only clubs.
Sadly, in the 21st-century United States, a few private clubs still discriminate against women – not just by refusing to have women as members, but worse yet, not even allowing them on the course property. Golf Digest magazine has reported that around 24 of these men-only clubs still exist in the United States. Among the offenders are four in the Chicago area:
(a & b) Bob-O-Link Golf Club and Old Elm Golf Club, Highland Park, Illinois. How private are these clubs? When Chicago Tribune golf writer Ed Sherman wrote an article on men-only clubs, members from both clubs refused to comment. Troglodytes.
(c) Black Sheep Golf Club, Sugar Grove, Illinois. This attractive David Esler-designed course opened in 2002. Why is the club men-only? According to owner Vince Solano, "there's a market for it." Unappealing as this is to many people, if certain men have enough money, well... money talks.
However, a slightly different approach might be underway in Oak Brook, Illinois.
(d) Butler National Golf Club, Oak Brook, Illinois. This club opened in 1972 with an extremely challenging layout designed by architect George Fazio and his nephew, Tom Fazio, who is now a highly-respected architect in his own right. Butler National *was* the host site of the PGA Tour's Western Open from 1974 until 1990.
Butler National lost the Western Open following the PGA Championship scandal in 1990, involving Shoal Creek Golf Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Shoal Creek's founder, Hall Thompson (also a member at Augusta National), had been unmoved when golfers and non-golfers alike complained about how the club discriminated against golfers who happen to have darker-shaded skin. But when the PGA of America threatened to move the 1990 PGA Championship from "Soul Creek" to a different club, the men of Shoal Creek finally cratered and invited Birmingham-area insurance executive Louis Willie to join the club. The scene at Shoal Creek is much different today; former U.S. Secretary of State and current Stanford University professor Dr. Condoleeza Rice is a member there.
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In Chicago, when the men of Butler National Golf Club refused to allow women to play there, the PGA Tour took the Western Open away from Butler National in 1991 and moved it to Cog Hill, a public-access course in Lemont, Illinois where women are very much welcome.
According to a February 2012 article, Butler National is reportedly willing to admit women as club members in the hopes of hosting a major championship. Hosting a U.S. Open or PGA Championship means more than just an estimated $5 million to the club; there is also the prestige and cachet of having hosted one of the four major championships in men's golf.
It would be particularly delicious if the USGA requires Butler National to host a U.S. Women's Open or a U.S. Women's Amateur before permitting the club to host a men's U.S. Open. :)
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I am not suggesting that private clubs not be allowed to exist; this would be unconstitutional and completely counter to the freedom and liberty we in the United States often take for granted. But Augusta National is an extremely prominent golf club (not a country club):
- They host one of the four annual major championships in men's professional golf;
- the club truly is a national club inasmuch as members live all around the United States;
- they have supported women's golf for decades, and
- they regularly welcome women-golfers as guests.
The officers and members of Augusta National could do so much toward further validating women's golf simply by admitting any or all of the four women I listed above; two of them are already members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, while a former Secretary of State and a high-profile captain of industry both deserve membership on their own respective merits.
(7) THEY MAY HAVE THEIR DEFENDERS...
What about the men-only clubs (with the possible upcoming exception of Butler National) who *still* refuse to permit women on their property? To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United Statesm talking about liquor...
...you may have your defenders, but you have no defense.
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