Augusta resists pressure from women's group
By Jerry Potter, USA TODAY
A leading women's coalition has asked Augusta National Golf Club to open its membership to women, but chairman Hootie Johnson says the club will not be coerced into changing its membership.
"There may come a day when women will be invited to join our membership, but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet," Johnson said in a statement Tuesday. "We will not be bullied, threatened or intimidated."
Martha Burk, chairwoman of the Washington-based National Council of Women's Organizations, whose 160 member groups include the National Organization for Women, said she received a letter from Johnson stating the club is private and does not discuss membership practices with non-members.
Augusta National, site of The Masters each April, has approximately 300 members, all men. "Mr. Johnson was completely unresponsive to a reasonable letter," Burk said. "We will determine our next move."
Johnson said in his statement that he feared a public relations campaign against the club and tournament sponsors IBM, Citigroup and Coca-Cola.
Asked about that, Burk said, "(Johnson) laid out a pretty good plan for me. I had hoped it would not come to the point of discussions with sponsors."
Augusta National officials contend that the club and the tournament are separate, and neither has discriminatory policies. Men and women can play the course as guests of members. Johnson said women play hundreds of rounds there each year, and the University of South Carolina women's golf team played as his guests last spring.
"Augusta National and The Masters are quite different," Johnson said. "One is a private golf club. The other is a world-class sports event. It is insidious to attempt to use one to alter the other. The essence of a private club is privacy."
