Mistresses stymie the Masters

An amazing spat has broken out that may well end up threatening the US Masters’ status as one of golf’s major championships.

The friction began in June when Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organisations (NCWO), sent Hootie Johnson, chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club’s committee, a letter urging him to add women to its membership.

Initially it seemed an innocuous approach, but Johnson and the worthies of Augusta are hard-headed and in Ms Burk they appear to have run into a single-minded and dogged adversary.

Instead of the Masters committee making appeasing noises and agreeing to invite a woman to become a member – after all the USGA has, in Judy Bell, had a woman as president while two women are serving on its current executive committee – they decided to dig their heels in.

Having got the big hand-off from Hootie and the Blown-ups, Ms Burk decided to bring to bear the might of the female consumer by targeting Masters sponsors such as IBM, Citigroup and Coca-Cola to embarrass them about being associated with such politically incorrect chauvinists as the Augusta National committee.

In response the Masters announced its staggering riposte, in this day and age, that it would be going commercial-free, dropping its corporate sponsors to avoid pressure on them by the irate women's lobby.

Club chairman Hootie Johnson notified the tournament's three sponsors that the Masters "will not request their participation" in 2003. These were the only companies that were allowed to run ads during the broadcast. Their logos also appeared on the Masters' Web site.

"This year's telecast will be conducted by the Masters Tournament," Johnson said in a statement. "We appreciate everything our media sponsors have done for us, but under the circumstances, we think it is important to take this step."

The Masters, which traditionally has the highest ratings in golf, will be the only commercial-free telecast in sport.

Johnson said he canceled the one-year sponsorship contracts because the NCWO had launched a corporate campaign against the club. He added the club has no exclusionary policies, although it has never had a female member its 69-year history, and only welcomed its first black member in 1990.

In response to Burk's letter, Johnson defiantly said that Augusta National would not be "bullied, threatened or intimidated" to add female members.

The feisty Martha Burk however seems to possess more COR than that and her springlike effect has seen her bounce back to urge CBS Sports to drop coverage of golf's most-watched tournament until Augusta National has a female member.

Burk has said she will not give up the fight until the Masters fades away as a major championship or until the club admits a woman.

"We expect to have a conversation with CBS," Burk told The Associated Press. "It will be about whether they want to broadcast an event, held in a venue that discriminates against half the population, and what kind of statement that makes about CBS as a network."

CBS Sports has had a one-year deal since 1956 to televise the Masters. The fee they pay Augusta National has never been disclosed and they agree to some pretty stringent controls – such as commentator Gary McCord being excluded from the broadcast since 1994 because he referred to the slick greens having been “body waxed” and the mounds around the 17th green as “body bags.”

Until this year CBS has not shown the front nine at Augusta, is allowed only four minutes in every hour for commercials and, in accordance with its agreement with the all-powerful Masters committee, instructs commentators to refer to “patrons” rather than the “gallery” or “fans.”

Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson said he was dropping the Masters' three television sponsors to shield them from any controversy over the club's all-male membership.

The NCWO has about six million members and represents about 160 groups. "We never threatened, we did not mention a boycott or a picket," she said. "We appealed to their own record and policies on sex discrimination."

She said IBM replied it would continue its sponsorship, viewing the private club as separate from the Masters. She said Coca-Cola and Citigroup indicated only that that they were in discussions with Augusta National.

After issuing a three-sentence reply to Burk that said Augusta membership policies are private, Johnson blasted her intentions in a three-page statement to the media in which he said the club would not be "bullied" into taking a female member.

Burk said if her group's pressure on CBS didn’t work, she would go after the employers of Augusta members. The club has about 300 members, all of whom fall into the “captain’s of industry” category.

Burk said she already has asked the PGA Tour to no longer recognise the Masters as an official event. She said commissioner Tim Finchem had written to her that the PGA Tour would continue to sanction the tournament.

"That was disappointing to me, coming from an entity that has clearly written policies against discrimination," Burk said. "They're creating a double standard."

Burk has also tried to involve Tiger Woods, whose status as the first black winner of the Masters would make him a standard-bearer for an anti-discrimination group, only to be diplomatically sidestepped but it seems the gentlemen of Georgia are taking on a fight they can’t win.

Professional golfers have wives and girlfriends. The very people who make the Masters the success it is could therefore become the strongest pressure group in forcing Hootie Johnson and Co to simply face the old locker room axiom about women – “You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them” – and admit some female members… many of whom are already among the patrons who pay at the gate to see their tournament.