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With Muirfield on the horizon, the debate over all-male golf clubs rages on

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:26:00 GMT

Augusta National Golf Club waited until it was ready to have its first female members. Apparently, it will be up to the three all-male clubs in the British Open's rota of courses to do the same.

At a Tuesday press conference, the R&A's chief executive, Peter Dawson, made it clear that the governing body of golf for most of the world won't "bully" clubs into taking women members. In fact, he said he doesn't think it's the R&A's place to get involved.

All-male clubs are once again a hot topic with this year's Open Championship being held at Muirfield, one of three courses used for golf's oldest major that still adheres to an all-male membership policy. The other two courses are Royal St. George's and Royal Troon.

Dawson noted that, "There is nothing wrong under UK legislation with a single-sex club as long as they behave under the equality act as far as guest access is concerned, which Muirfield certainly does."

Dawson went on to say, "Muirfield has a huge history when it comes to the Open Championship and this will be the 16th time that is has been played there, and who are we to say what they should do as they are behaving perfectly legally."

This conversation has also come to the forefront once again on the heels of the first Masters since Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore were invited to be the first women members of Augusta National, something that club chairman Billy Payne addressed in his pre-tournament press conference:

"I hope the experience for Condi and Darla, as members of our club, has been every bit as rewarding and enjoyable for them over the last eight months as it has been for their fellow members," Payne said. "It's just awesome."

It took 80 years for Augusta National to change its policy regarding women members, but it seems, at least, ostensibly, to be happy with the decision. Should Muirfield, Royal St. George's and Royal Troon follow suit?

And that's just one question this conversation raises. If golf wants to continue to grow, does having one of its most prestigious events being played at a site that isn't inclusive of women send the right message? Just because it's legal, does that mean it's the right thing to do? Does the R&A, perhaps the sport's most powerful organization, deserve a say in the situation? And if so, should it intervene?

For now, it appears as if those questions will remain unanswered. As this year's Open approaches, though, don't expect them to go away.

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Masters announces changes to cut, qualifying

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:23:00 GMT

By Ryan Herrington

AUGUSTA, GA. -- There were no fireworks when Augusta National's Billy Payne met with the media Wednesday morning for the yearly chairman's press conference. With last August's announcement that Condi Rice and Darla Moore had become the club's first female members, the issue that annually fostered the most contentiousness had been defused.

In lieu of controversy, Payne did provide some news. Notably, starting this week, the tournament would extend its 36-hole cut from the top 44 players and ties (in place since 1962) to the top 50 and ties, plus those within 10 of the lead.

"We believe offering more playing opportunities for the participants over the weekend is a positive for everyone involved," Payne said.

With the change in the structure of the PGA Tour calendar starting later this year, Payne said that the club also had decided to alter its qualification standards, offering winners of fall tour events that will start to receive full FedExCup points invitations in 2014. To accommodate the potential increase in the size of the field, only the top 12 finishes at the Masters will gain entry the next year (down from the top 16) while U.S. Open finishers in the top four rather than the top eight will be invited the following April. The exemption to the top 30 off the previous year's tour money list was eliminated.

The one true surprise from Payne came in the form of his response -- or lack thereof -- to the question on where the club stood on the anchoring ban proposed late last year by the USGA and R&A. The presumption entering the press conference was that Payne might give his opinion on the subject, perhaps even offering the deciding vote in the debate on the issue. Instead, he deferred on the matter, stating it would be "inappropriate for us to express an opinion" given that the governing bodies have yet to decide whether to go forward with the ban or not. Payne did say he hoped that "common ground" could be reached to "so that golf will continue under one set of rules."

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Tweets We'd Like To Read In 2012

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 05:00:00 GMT

2011 was full of surprises, but we'd welcome these developments in 2012.

Why the Augusta news is being blown out of proportion

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:03:00 GMT

By Ashley Mayo

Can we all settle down? This news that Augusta National has finally added women members is certainly welcome, but to call it a "joyous occasion" and pretend it'll revolutionize the game is absurd. It's nothing more than one private club finally accepting female members. Two of them.

Is it a sign of progress? Of course it is. Will it change the face of the game? No, sorry, it won't.

As much as golf is believed to be stuck in the 19th century, the fact is the overwhelming majority of golf courses welcome women with open arms. The overwhelming majority of manufacturers make golf clubs specifically for women. The overwhelming majority of apparel companies create gear exclusively for women. This has been the case for years, and will continue to be so for years to come.

Also, the overwhelming majority of female golfers will never become a member at Augusta National. The club is still an uber-private, buttoned-up association that grants access to a select, privileged few. It's just that now, for politically correct reasons, it has two female members.

Too many people -- especially those who are attaching too much importance to this news -- are mistakenly suggesting that the practices of one private club represent the sport as a whole. That's more upsetting than the membership policies of a single private club.

It shouldn't take today's news for the public to realize that golf has long distanced itself from its stodgy, insular past.

The best news to emerge from today's announcement? We won't have to answer the "Why doesn't Augusta have any female members?" question that inevitably comes up before every Masters.

What a relief.

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With long overdue move, Augusta National no longer an exception to rules

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:46:00 GMT

By John Barton

The world did not stop turning. As far as we know, hell did not freeze over. When the announcement came -- a press release from Augusta National Golf Club informing the world that the infamously male-only club had finally added two women members -- it did not seem so much like a bombshell, but rather as something inevitable, and perhaps long overdue.

"This is a joyous occasion," said chairman of Augusta National Billy Payne of the two new recruits, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, 57, and Darla Moore, 58. "These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership. It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their Green Jackets when the Club opens this fall.

"This is a significant and positive time in our Club's history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family."

Rice was National Security Advisor for the first term of George W. Bush's presidency and Secretary of State for the second. She is currently a professor of political science at Stanford University, where she was provost before her excursion into Washington politics. She took up golf at the age of 50, in 2005 -- a few months into her job as Secretary of State. Moore is a partner in the private investment firm Rainwater Inc., founded by her husband Richard Rainwater. Don't expect a sudden rush of more women members now that the redoubt has been breached, but there might be a slow trickle. Often mentioned is Virginia Rometty, who was appointed chief executive of IBM and, unlike her four male predecessors, has not been offered membership.

The absence of women members has long been a thorn in the side of the club. Whenever the inevitable question was posed at the annual chairman's press conference on the eve of the Masters, Payne -- and before him his predecessor Hootie Johnson -- would cough, mutter that membership was a private matter for the club, and offer no further comment.

In the nine months preceding the 2003 Masters, Martha Burk, a latter day suffragette and the then-chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, spearheaded a vigorous campaign against Augusta National for not having any women members, successfully targeting some of the tournament's sponsors. The culmination of the campaign took place during the tournament itself, out of sight in a park a about a mile from the club, a rather pitiful protest with a small cast of unlikely characters including an inflatable pig and an Elvis impersonator. Johnson had said he wasn't about to admit female members "at the point of a bayonet" and ironically Burk's protest might have even delayed the inevitable. Nobody, least of all Augusta National, likes to be told what to do, and the club, which may well have already been considering female members, was never going to concede any kind of victory to Burk.

The club has always been governed with a delicate blend of adhering to tradition and moving swiftly with the times, but Payne is thought of more as a reformer, a global thinker, than Johnson, though according to Associated Press reports, Payne and Johnson agreed together on the timing of the club's gender integration.

Payne has offered support to The First Tee and the push to get golf in the Olympics (it was he who brought the 1996 Games to Atlanta), and in 2009 he announced, along with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the formation of the Asian Amateur Championship, whose winner would get to play in the Masters (and a final qualifying event for the British Open). At the time, Payne spoke of wanting to inspire the next generation of youngsters around the world to fulfill their dreams, but the sincerity was handicapped by the fact that these were two powerful male-only bodies joining forces to create a male-only event, as if little girls' dreams didn't matter.

The issue was never whether or not private clubs have the right to be single gender -- they clearly do (there remain a couple of dozen private men's golf clubs in the United States). The issue was whether such an influential, high-profile club that hosts one of the world's premier sporting events ought not to set a better example.

As Rice and Moore get fit for a ladies Green Jacket, that is no longer an issue for Augusta National. The club is no more an odd exception to tour regulations -- formed after the Shoal Creek debacle in 1990 -- that host clubs cannot discriminate on the basis of race or gender.

For the R&A, however, the world governing body of golf outside of North America, the male-only membership issue is now even more glaringly acute. After a suitable grace period, expect the Scottish club, founded in 1754, to follow Augusta's belated lead, perhaps without any fuss or fanfare.

Golf is a tradition-bound pursuit with a long, ungracious history of discrimination. At a time when clubs are struggling for members and once-alive fairways are being paved over by developers, today's announcement is a small but welcome step in a good direction.

(Photo by Getty Images)

At Augusta, change happens when the club is good and ready

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:18:00 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- One of the many misconceptions about Augusta National Golf Club is that it resists change. In fact, it is a constantly-evolving place always in search of new ways to enhance the Masters experience for players, patrons and the media. It's just that everything Augusta National does happens at a time, place and manner of its own choosing.

That message was articulated with crystal clarity Wednesday when club chairman Billy Payne, in his annual meeting with the media, was asked nine questions about the Augusta National tradition of not inviting women to be members. And nine times Payne politely but firmly replied with a variation of the same answer.

Photo by Getty Images

"All issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to the private deliberations of the members, and that statement remains accurate and remains my statement."

The all-male membership matter was raised aggressively at the chairman's news conference for the first time since 2003, when the Masters was played without sponsors in order to spare them a sticky situation because of the protest organized by Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations.

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One way the Masters might cut field size

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:26:00 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- You have to wonder, leaving Wednesday's State of the Masters news conference, just how long the invitation will be extended to PGA Tour winners. What spiked this year's field to 99 players, a number that has Chairman Billy Payne concerned, were the 10 players that earned exemptions solely with a tour victory. That number, according to Chairman of the Competition Committee Fred Ridley, is normally in the four-to-fve range and a reflection of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson combining for one victory since last year's Masters. "There is a maximum number of competitors for which we can give the experience that we want them to have and do it in a way that's manageable," Payne said. "The hundred pushes that limit quite significantly." With Augusta's commitment to its tradition of amateur golf, along with its outreach into Asia, that kind of puts them in a box. Maybe, to use Ridley's word, it's just an "anomaly," and that Tiger and Phil start winning like Tiger and Phil again. If they don't, and pace of play becomes an issue because of the largest field since 103 in 1966, players like Jhonattan Vegas and Gary Woodland may not get the privilege of a Masters
invitation.

--Tim Rosaforte

Is Masters field too big? Payne thinks so

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:59:00 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Billy Payne has a funny way of making Masters contestants feel welcome. It was a year ago, remember, that the Augusta National chairman used his State of the Masters Wednesday press conference to single out Tiger Woods and his well-documented series of off-the-course transgressions.

This year, Payne didn't take issue with a single player, but simply the sheer number of them in the field. The subtext of his remarks: There's too many of you here. We don't like it.

The 99 players set to tee off Thursday -- not counting ceremonial starters Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus -- is the most in the Masters since 1966, when there were 103 players. It is the fourth-highest total ever. The result is that Payne and the tournament committee will be taking a closer look at the qualification process after this year's event.

Meeting Matteo

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