Sometimes, it’s hard for me to believe I live in a country—supposedly the most progressive and open-minded country in the world—where the most famous golf club in the world is located but that won’t allow women into its confines as members. Since 1933, Augusta National Golf Club, the home to this week’s Master’s Golf Tournament, hasn’t allowed a woman to walk into its clubhouse as a full-fledged member. Oh, it’s perfectly acceptable if one of the men who is a member of the club invites you to come on over and play a round, but forget about entering the doors as an equal. It’s not going to happen because at least in the eyes of those at Augusta, you aren’t equal.
What even worse to me is that the club’s chairman Billy Payne nor anyone else who belongs to the club will tell us why all this is. Apparently, it’s all a big secret that can never be revealed. It’s forbidden. It’s against the rules. It’s not for our consumption.
Are women not allowed because they aren’t equal to men? No, that can’t be it because it’s not true. Is it because women aren’t as good of golfers as men? Well, I can personally attest to that being BS. Plenty of women have kicked my ass up and down the course. Is it because women can’t afford the membership fees? Well, that’s highly doubtful. I’m pretty sure Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO and the center of all kinds of media attention this week (IBM is a Master’s sponsor and, traditionally, the IBM CEO gets an honorary membership), can afford the green fees and give her caddy a little something for the effort. She could probably afford to build her own golf course if she wanted, but why should she have to? Isn’t what’s good for a male IBM CEO good for a female IBM CEO? Apparently not.
Are women not allowed because if a woman did become a member, the male members would’t feel free to sit back in the comfy leather chairs with their fat cigars and spew their long-held opinions on women? After all, it’s not nearly as much fun belittling someone who can fight back than it is behind her back. I’m guessing this has something very much to do with the “women aren’t allowed” mentality, just the way this probably had something to do with why a black man didn’t become a member until the early 1990s. And that only occurred after a whole bunch of pressure. I’m guessing that the weak-minded men who walk the hallways of Augusta National have never really been comfortable around women unless they were wearing a skirt, cleaning up after them, cooking their meals, doing their laundry, and fulfilling all the rest of their pitiful needs whenever beckoned.
Hey, I understand the nature of a private club. The “private” distinguisher means you can invite whoever you want in and keep whoever you want out. I get it. It’s sort of like a racist organization. Sort of like class warfare. Sort of like an all-white school. Yeah, the execution of exclusionary clubs has really worked wonders throughout history. Nothing like a gated community to erect a sense of peace and unity. Maybe it’s the way I was raised or the economic environment I come from, but I never understood the allure of a country club. It never appealed to me. I’m sure there are good people milling about inside, and I’m certainly not going to engage in reverse discrimination against anyone who is a country member unless they give me a reason to (i.e. Augusta National). I’m sure there are legitimate reasons why people seek to become a part of that society and culture. I just don’t understand it. I didn’t join a fraternity for the same reason. I didn’t understand why I was automatically handing over my loyalty and money to people I didn’t know. Still, I know plenty of men and women who belonged to a fraternity or sorority who are fine, decent, good people.
Still, to me, Augusta National is different. It reeks of something foul. There’s something about that situation that’s elitist and archaic and harmful. There’s something about not explaining why women aren’t welcome as members that stinks of secrecy and misplaced motives. Despite how beautiful Augusta National is and despite how much the golfer in me would love to walk those fairways, even if I had the monetary means to become a member of Augusta National, I’m not sure a club where an entire gender of the human race is not welcome is a good fit for me. I’m quite certain that I’m not alone in that thinking. I just can’t see myself feeling content surrounded by dozens of other men who seemingly don’t have a problem with excluding their mother, grandmother, sister, wife, girlfriend, daughter, niece, teacher, doctor, senator, banker, etc. just because she happens to be built differently.
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