Augusta National finally comes to the conclusion that women ARE good enough for their silly club

A SYTYCB entry

On Monday, for the first time in its nearly 80-year history, the Augusta National Golf Club decided to take down its “No Girls Allowed” sign and finally admit two women (OMG, women!) to their famous clubhouse this coming fall. The Augusta National Golf Club has played host to the Masters Tournament since 1934 and has a strict invitation-only membership policy. The two lucky ladies — South Carolina businesswoman Darla Moore and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — were announced in a statement made by Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne:

“This is a joyous occasion as we enthusiastically welcome Secretary Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as members of Augusta National Golf Club.

“We are fortunate to consider many qualified candidates for membership at Augusta National.  Consideration with regard to any candidate is deliberate, held in strict confidence and always takes place over an extended period of time.  The process for Condoleezza and Darla was no different.

“These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership. It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their Green Jackets when the Club opens this fall.

“This is a significant and positive time in our Club’s history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family.”

Yes, Mr. Payne, this is a joyous occasion. But that’s not the real question, now is it? What we all want to know is what the hell took you so long? Women have been playing golf long before Augusta National even existed. So why did you exclude them?

In an interview with NPR, Deborah Frett, CEO of the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, thinks that the answer has something to do with the business decisions made on the golf course:

“It was never really about golf. It’s always been about power and keeping women out of the halls of power and away from where decisions, you know, business decisions are made. […] We all know that corporate leaders can publicly participate in activities that keep women out, that that becomes an issue and it makes a public statement about a not-so-level playing field and then, you know, and the value of women workers.”

This is not the first time that Augusta National has been criticized for its extremely exclusive membership policies. This old boys club didn’t admit black men as members until 1990. The club was forced to change its policy because it failed to gain funding from the Professional Golfers Association of America’s (PGA) sponsors due to its all-white membership.

Women have been fighting for a spot on the green since 2002, when the National Council of Women’s Organizations wrote an open letter to Augusta National requesting them to admit female members. At the time, then-Chairman Hootie Johnson famously said that he wouldn’t allow women to join the club, even “if I drop dead this second,” adding that the Club’s policy would never change.

But the policy did change this week. What prompted it? Is it the fact that the new CEO and president of IBM (which just happens to be the major sponsor of the Masters Tournament) is a woman? Or did one of the members simply wake up, smell the freshly cut grass and think to himself, “Hey, it’s the year 2012, maybe we should include the other 50% of the population?

Well, we’re probably never going to find out. The Augusta National is famous for its secretive membership selection process. When asked about the club’s all-male membership back in April, Chairman Billy Payne stated:

“All issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to the private deliberations of members, and that statement remains accurate and it remains my statement.”

Augusta National’s decision to admit women comes at the end of a memorable month for women in sports. London’s summer Games was the first of its kind. It was the first Olympics that included female athletes from every single country competing. The United States had more female athletes representing our country than we did males (269 females versus 261 men). Two-thirds of team USA’s gold medals were won by women. And who can forget the history-making, somersaulting “Fab Five”?

But even after such a strong show in the Olympics by women all over the world, Augusta National’s announcement is a sobering one that shows just how far we have yet to go. It’s sad that the “big story” in sports this week was that a golf club in Georgia made history by admitting two women. It’s a good start, sure, but far from the ideal. It will be truly historic when the club’s membership reaches an equal number of women as it does men.

So, let’s just be clear: no one is going to be applauding the Augusta National Golf Club this fall because it did something “groundbreaking” by letting two girls into its club and giving them each green jackets to wear. We’ll be applauding because we’re relieved and happy that it finally got around to doing the right thing — even if it was about eighty years late.