Touchy Day at Augusta National Men’s Club
By KAREN CROUSE
AUGUSTA, Ga.
The azaleas have wilted, but change is in full bloom at Augusta National Golf Club. In his annual state of the Masters address Wednesday, the club’s chairman, Billy Payne, noted the addition of a restroom. Presumably it’s for men.
If the club had added its first female member recently, Payne did not crow about it. Joining the 21st century would be a monumental achievement for the green-jacketed gentry.
The club was given the cultural equivalent of a conceded putt this year when I.B.M., one of the tournament’s three corporate sponsors, along with Exxon Mobil and AT&T, chose Virginia M. Rometty as its new chief executive. The company’s four previous chief executives had been extended a club membership, so a precedent had been set. This was Augusta National’s chance to integrate its private men’s club, not at the point of a bayonet as Payne’s predecessor, Hootie Johnson, so colorfully put it in 2003, but as a matter of course.
It’s not as if the club is incapable of taking swift action when the situation dictates it. An overnight storm Tuesday dumped more than an inch of rain on the course. Several bunkers were flooded and fairways and greens were littered with debris, including a toppled tree that caused significant damage to a restroom at No. 16.
“We hope to have it rebuilt and up and running by the end of the day,” Payne said.
A restroom can be repaired in a day, but a club founded in 1933 on the bedrock of segregation is obviously not so easily rebuilt — or even touched. Before opening the floor for questions, Payne delivered an opening statement, from notes, in which he acknowledged that the sport’s stagnant growth is a major concern.
To make golf more attractive to a younger demographic, the club already has established a program in which juniors gain free admission to the tournament and participated in the creation of a golf video game.
“Impressive efforts, I hope, but not enough,” Payne said. “We can do better.”
At that moment, Payne’s next breath seemed pregnant with possibilities. Was he about to disclose that Rometty was a candidate for membership? That Condoleezza Rice has been a member for several years — or Louise Suggs, one of the L.P.G.A. founders and a friend and occasional golf partner of Bobby Jones?
Wishful thinking, as it turned out.
“We can be a better partner with the established golf organizations as they address these critical issues,” Payne said. “To that end, we have appointed a very smart and motivated team of members who have been given the charge of determining what more we can do.”
A few minutes into the question-and-answer portion of the news conference, a reporter had an idea about what the club could do. Payne had already answered two questions about the all-male membership, including one about Rometty in which he referred to her as “a named candidate,” which was more revealing than perhaps Payne intended.
“I note your concerns about the growth of golf around the world, and I also note that Augusta National is a very famous club,” Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian said. “Don’t you think it would send a wonderful message to young girls around the world if they knew that one day they could join this very famous golf club?”
Payne’s stock response to membership questions is that such issues are and have historically been a private matter.
“That is a membership issue,” he began, at which point another reporter interjected: “Seems like a mixed message, Billy, is what he’s saying. You’re throwing a lot of money into growing the game and yet there’s still a perception that certain people are excluded.”
A stricken expression crossed Payne’s face. He looked as if he had been struck by the point of a bayonet. He stammered and finally drowned out the reporter’s voice by saying, “Thank you.”
Already it was the most contentious state-of-the-Masters address in recent years. And Payne wasn’t out of the woods. I asked Payne how he would explain to his granddaughters that he leads a club that does not include women as members.
Locked on autopilot, he replied, “I think that’s a question that deals with membership.” I disagreed, saying, “It’s a kitchen-table question, a personal question.” With a forced laugh, Payne replied, “Well, my conversations with my granddaughters are also private.”
(I was the only woman called on to ask a question, and that was after having my hand up for 20 minutes.)
He was squirming like a cornered animal. At that moment, Payne must have had some idea how awkward it is to be Rometty or others in I.B.M. management trying to explain its Masters ties to its female employees. Or Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, who has to justify why the tour continues to recognize the Masters as an official event despite its mandate that its tournaments take place at clubs with nondiscriminatory membership practices.
There were more questions — about the practice facility and the Masters’ Web site and mud balls. Then a reporter asked Payne what he would suggest he tell his own daughters about why they are not welcome to become members at the most prestigious golf club in the country.
“I have no advice for you there, sir,” Payne said.
The next voice belonged to Craig Heatley, the chairman of the media committee, who said, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.”
