It’s finally April, and for golf fans and corporate America alike, that means one thing: the Masters. Tiger Woods may have taken home his fourth green jacket a few weeks ago, but the fight over Augusta National Golf Club and its discriminatory and exclusive membership policies continue.
Golf’s first major has always been its most controversial. Augusta National was founded in 1934 by one of golf’s first superstars, Robert “Bobby” Jones. With the help of brilliant architect Alistair McKenzie and investment banker Clifford Roberts, Jones built a club where he and his friends could play a casual round of golf and escape from the hectic Atlanta lifestyle. Unsurprisingly, Jones’ friends were chiefly white Christian males — a legacy that has carried over to present-day Augusta.
No black golfer competed in the Masters until 1975, when Lee Elder was the first to break an unwritten barrier that had been in place for some 40 years. The club came under fire for its membership policies in 1990 and was forced to admit its first black member the same year. According to the Augusta Chronicle, three of the club’s 300 members are black.
While Augusta National may have made strides in admitting members of color, the club clings to its Dixie roots with regard to gender. While women are allowed to play the course, not a single woman has been invited to join the most prestigious of all American golf clubs.
Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, has led a fierce crusade against the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club since 2003, when she cast the club’s all-male membership into the social and political spotlight, resulting in two years of sponsor-less television coverage. With the return of commercial sponsors, Burk has thrown down the figurative gauntlet to corporate America.
Burk’s current campaign against the Masters is one slightly modified from her original position. Instead of taking on the club’s chairman, the affable but stubborn William “Hootie” Johnson, the National Council of Women’s Organizations has chosen to take the fight to the boardrooms and the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
According to the NCWO’s official website, letters have been sent to the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, SBC Communications and IBM denouncing their sponsorship of the event. The NCWO’s appeal to the consciences of these CEOs (all of whom happen to be members of Augusta) is impractical. The Masters provides arguably one of the best advertising venues to target the affluent white male demographic these companies so sorely desire. Pressuring multibillion-dollar corporations to abandon their profit motive is unfeasible, especially as Burk’s second campaign against Augusta has failed to draw the media attention of her first.
Instead, the NCWO’s campaign should focus on tactful and constructive strategies to usher in a new wave of members into Augusta’s ranks. Persuasion on a more personal level could serve to further Burk’s cause much more effectively than an attempt at public embarrassment. These conversations behind closed doors could lead to more egalitarian club policies toward women, at the very least. Early candidates for membership could include the charismatic Meg Whitman (CEO of Ebay) or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (a choice that could prove popular with the club’s staunchly Republican members).
In short, Martha Burk’s campaign is an admirable one, but unrealistic. The membership of Augusta National is as set in its ways and as powerful as any in the world. This is a club where Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Sanford Weill (Citigroup) count themselves as members. A campaign of public shaming seems unlikely to work on these men or the sponsoring companies, who chose to gamble on the possibility of a public relations fiasco in choosing to advertise with the Masters at all. A focus on realistic strategies for change could serve to expedite Burk’s goals, which seem bound to be successful in today’s political climate.
Gabe Cohen ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in journalism.