(September 6, 2002)                                                                                          Hot News Main Page

National Council of Women's Organizations 
and the War with Augusta National

BRISTOL CT (Sept. 6, 2002) The fight between the Augusta National Golf Club and Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO), grew even a bit more testy on Tuesday.

Appearing on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, Burk said that her organization will begin targeting PGA Tour players in a bid to force Augusta National to allow women members.

The players "need to take a moral stand," Burk told Patrick.

"I think Augusta will eventually see that it will be in the best interests of their club ... to do the right thing and allow women members," she later said in the interview.

Throughout the debate, Augusta National has responded, citing -- among the nine points listed on the right -- the club's constitutional rights and the difference between Augusta National, a private club, and The Masters, a major golf tournament.

Last week, Burk said that she will talk with CBS about its televising of The Masters, which will be commercial-free next year. Johnson announced that The Masters will drop its sponsors -- IBM, Coca-Cola and Citigroup -- to shield them from any controversy over the club's all-male membership.

However, IBM indicated it wanted to remain a sponsor for The Masters before Johnson's decision, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

"IBM had the least defensible position," Burk said. "They pulled out of Shoal Creek; they didn't want to be part of it. Do they have different standards for sex discrimination versus race discrimination?"

In 1990, IBM was among the sponsors that pulled ads from the PGA Championship at Shoal Creek because of the club's policy of barring blacks from membership.

An IBM spokesman told the Times on Tuesday that the company "respected" Augusta's decision to drop its sponsors from next year's tournament.

IBM did comment on how it distinguished between the policies at Shoal Creek and Augusta, but the company told Burk in a letter last month that it stood by its commitment to women, the Times reported. Additionally, the company agreed with Johnson that it was sponsoring The Masters, "which is very public," not Augusta.

In her reply to IBM, the Times reported, Burk asked, "How does IBM justify doing less in the case of Augusta and the Masters" -- as compared to Shoal Creek -- "or do the practices and policies on sex and race discrimination differ?"

Augusta National has not had a woman member in its 69-year history. It has had black members since 1990.

In Tuesday's Washington Post, Burke said he group has not decided whether to picket The Masters.

"We do have the capability of picketing," Burk said. "We have 160 organizations with seven million members. I'm getting calls from people across the country. [Johnson] is just stirring up aggravation more and more and more. Women are consumers, and as far as the sponsorship issue, the top layer is TV, but there are plenty of others, like player sponsors, other companies that do business with them and other CEOs."

Throughout the debate, Augusta National has responded, citing several issues:

1. This is not a legal issue. The Masters has a constitutional right to its private membership.

2. Martha Burk tries to equate this to the Shoal Creek racial issue in 1990, but they are totally different. In America, there are women's colleges, the Girl Scouts of America and women's health clubs throughout the country. In Canada and overseas, there are women-only golf clubs.

3. The Club possibly will have a woman member in the future, but it should be the Club's decision, not the decision of an outside group that knows little about the Club or Tournament. In Ms. Burk's initial letter, she placed a deadline on the Club to have a woman member (2003), and discussed the sponsors of the Tournament.

4. The winner in this sponsorship issue is the viewer. There will now be 12 ½ hours of commercial free golf coverage.

5. What is presently happening is a corporate campaign. The National Council of Women's Organizations is targeting anyone associated with the Masters.

6. The reason we chose not to ask the sponsors to participate in 2003 was to spare them the inevitability of a continued corporate campaign that could have included protests and boycotts.

7. Dr. Burk is now telling individuals what to watch on television. In three online polls conducted this weekend, nearly 90 percent of respondents said they would continue to watch the Masters on CBS. Over 4.3 million women watched the Masters last year.

8. The Masters and Augusta National are different. One is a private club, and the other is a world-class sporting event that is completely inclusive.

9. The Masters is being used as a symbol. Several other Clubs do not allow women to play or even to enter the grounds. Women play at Augusta National regularly, and there are no restrictions on tee times. Women played over 1,000 rounds at the Club last year.

[Source: ESPN.com]