After getting a good laugh out of Friday's editorial cartoon in The Dartmouth, I realized that little has been said in our paper about the controversy over the membership policies of the Augusta National Golf Club. For those who haven't kept abreast of the issue, Martha Burk -- head of the National Council of Women's Organizations -- sent a letter last summer to Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson demanding that the club open its membership to women before the 2003 Masters tournament "or else." The Augusta National, which hosts the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, has never had a woman member. As an Augusta native and a college golfer, I have followed the controversy with interest.
Burk has decided to take this issue because the Augusta National is an easy target. Its critics have referred to it as a "bastion of bigots where rich, mostly white guys supposedly sit around playing poker with Confederate money while the women folk fetch their slippers." Its chairman's name is William "Hootie" Johnson, and Burk has said openly that she can't take a man named "Hootie" seriously (it should be noted that Hootie Johnson was one of the leaders in the fight to desegregate South Carolina's educational system). This caricature makes a great target for the NCWO because they can just inflame and complain without using facts or nuance.
So what are the facts? It is true that the Augusta National has no women members; however, the club allows women, just like men, to play at any time as long as they are with a member. Moreover, members' spouses can play at any time and they can even have their own guests. For non-members, there are no separate limitations for male and female golfers to play. This situation is certainly more favorable to women than that at plenty of other private clubs in America, like Pine Valley, where women are allowed to play only on Sunday afternoons.
Many people who have voiced opinions supporting Martha Burk's stance also fail to realize that the Augusta National is a private golf club that hosts the Masters for one week out of the year. Contracts are made with the Masters and not the Augusta National. The Masters has no discriminatory policies on allowing women onto the grounds of the Augusta National during the tournament. Both men and women can buy tickets. Both men and women can watch the tournament. Women feel no less welcome at the Masters than men, which says a lot compared to many major sporting events. I fail to see where the Masters is itself discriminatory, other than that only men are competitors -- just as in the National Basketball Association and numerous other professional sporting organizations.
To counter this point, Burk has claimed that the Masters is a public accommodation, and consequently, the Augusta National sacrifices its private status to make its own decisions concerning its membership. Burk also said that she doesn't see that the Masters is "tied at the hip" to the Augusta National Golf Club. She wonders why they can't simply move the Masters to another golf course. For someone who has literally made a federal case out of this, Martha Burk obviously knows very little about golf -- Bobby Jones and the Augusta National created the Masters. She does not play golf. She has never even been to my hometown. Why then, I must ask, does she spend her time trying to force a private men's golf club in Augusta, Ga., to end its exclusion of female members?
The Augusta National is a clearly private club; it receives no public funds from any government establishment or institution. As a private club, it has a constitutional right to make its own decisions about its policies. Since when has male bonding been an infringement of civil rights? Exclusive fraternities and sororities are still legal. Martha Burk is right that gender discrimination is equally as heinous as other forms of discrimination. However, I feel that it's an overreach to equate Augusta's policies with discrimination. There are plenty of private, single-sex schools and universities in America. Their admissions policies are no different that Augusta's. Why isn't she attacking these institutions as well? What's more important: a golf club or the right to access a first-rate education? I sincerely hope that the NCWO has more important and urgent issues to pursue than attacking a golf club.
