Fore! Augusta National chairman fires at women's group (Hootie Johnson tells NCWO to go to hell)

Associated Press ^ | July 9, 2002 | Associated Press

[jern]

In a defiant statement about the privacy of Augusta National, chairman Hootie Johnson lashed out at a national women's group Tuesday for urging the club to have female members before next year's Masters.

"Our membership alone decides our membership -- not any outside group with its own agenda,'' Johnson said in a surprisingly long and angry statement.

The National Council of Women's Organizations, which has about 6 million members from 160 groups, sent a letter to Johnson on June 12 after chairwoman Martha Burk read reports about Augusta National not having women among its 300 members.

Lloyd Ward, the first black CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee and an Augusta member, said during the Masters that he would lobby to broaden the membership to include women.

"We know that Augusta National and the sponsors of the Masters do not want to be viewed as entities that tolerate discrimination against any group, including women,'' Burk said in the letter.

In a three-sentence reply that Burk received via overnight mail Wednesday, Johnson said he found the letter to be "offensive and coercive,'' and that there would be no more discussion with NCWO because Augusta membership matters are private.

"The response is insensitive at best and confrontational at worst,'' Burk said. "I and my groups are making a good-faith effort to urge the club to be fair, to not discriminate against women and basically to come into the 21st century.

"We were trying the olive-branch approach, but he's unwilling to talk.''

Johnson had plenty to say in a three-page statement.

"The message delivered to us was clearly coercive,'' he said. "We will not be bullied, threatened or intimidated. We do not intend to become a trophy in their display case.''

Burk said NCWO's next step would be to contact the sponsors of the Masters -- Coca-Cola, IBM and Citigroup -- to ask them not to do business with a club that has no female members.

"I hope they'll respond positively,'' she said. "I find it interesting to think that if the club barred blacks, whether any sponsor would come near it in this day and age. Why should it be different for barring half of the population?''

Augusta National, built on a former nursery in northeastern Georgia, opened in 1932. The Masters was created in 1934 and has become the most famous golf tournament in the world. It usually gets the highest television ratings, too.

Tiger Woods won the Masters this year for the third time.

Johnson said in April that Augusta does not have exclusionary membership policies, although it did not have a black member until 1990 and, as Burk points out, has not had a female member in its 70-year history.

"There may well 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.

While there are no female members, several women have played Augusta. Johnson recently invited the University of South Carolina women's golf team to play as his guest, and Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins from the LPGA Tour played the course in May.

Johnson tried to draw a line between the privacy of the club and the public nature of the Masters tournament, attended by some 40,000 people.

Augusta National operates the Masters independent from any other golf organization, such as the PGA Tour. The club gets most of its money from an annual TV contract with CBS Sports and sales from its souvenir store at the course. Weekly tickets cost $125, half the cost of other major golf championships.

"Augusta National and the Masters -- while happily entwined -- are quite different,'' Johnson said. "One is a private golf club. The other is a world-class sports event of great public interest. It is insidious to attempt to use one to alter the essence of the other.''

Burk suggested that if Augusta National does not have female members, the Masters should move to a club that does.

"The Masters, in my mind, is not tied at the hip to this club,'' she said. "An event of this profile could be held somewhere else.''

The next major golf championship is the British Open, where Woods will try to win the third leg of the Grand Slam. It will be played at Muirfield in Scotland, a club that also does not have female members.

"I'm going to leave that for the British feminists,'' Burk said.

[Budge]

"Our membership alone decides our membership -- not any outside group with its own agenda,'' Johnson said in a surprisingly long and angry statement.

WTG Hootie! Tell the NAGS where to go. =o)

[jern]

you got to love that

[Budge]

"The Masters, in my mind, is not tied at the hip to this club,'' she said. "An event of this profile could be held somewhere else.''

Oh, really Martha Burk?

Shows just how much you don't know about The Masters!

[Budge]

you got to love that

Really!

[goodieD]

Boy, I've been seeing a LOT of people telling leftist groups where to go today.. it's a good day :)

[D.P.Roberts]

"The Masters, in my mind, is not tied at the hip to this club,'' she said. "An event of this profile could be held somewhere else.''

Just shows you don't need to be feminine to be flighty.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

My friend, this one is for you...........

[Mike K]

Wanna' guess where the nags learned this shakedown? From the man who coined the word unliterate, jesse jackson.

[tet68]

No green blazer for Martha any time soon.

[Lockbox]

Federal civil rights laws do not make it unlawful for bona fide private clubs and religious organizations to discriminate on whatever basis they choose.

[PLK]

They will go NOWHERE with this. I don't care how much they try to shake down the sponsors. Americans are not in the mood for this cr*p right now. In fact, I'd love to see them try it.

As for her statement that the Masters could be held at another course, all I can say is, "what an ignorant hag!"

[kcvl]

Martha Burk
Chair
National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO)
202-393-7122

Areas of Expertise: Enhancing International Reproductive Health and Family Planning, Educating Girls, Advancing Women's Human Rights, Improving Women's Economic Status

[Republic of Texas]

Finally, someone stands up to the nazi's.

[GSWarrior]

They're mad because hootie sounds like hooter.

[kcvl]

Dr. Martha Burk is a political psychologist and women's equity expert who is co-founder and President of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy, a research and policy analysis organization in Washington, D.C. Dr. Burk is currently serving as Chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, a network of over 100 national women's groups collectively representing six million women.

Dr. Burk has long been active in public debate and political analysis. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her background includes experience as a university research director, management professor, and advisor to political campaigns and organizations. Dr. Burk has served on the Commission for Responsive Democracy, the Advisory Committee of Americans for Workplace Fairness, the Sex Equity Caucus of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the board of directors of the National Organization for Women. She currently serves on the boards of Wider Opportunities for Women, and chairs the Legislative Task Force for The National Committee on Pay Equity. She serves as an advisory board member to several other national organizations.

Dr. Burk is a syndicated columnist and regular guest on the PBS public affairs program Debates, Debates. She also appears regularly on national and international radio and television, and is a frequent contributor to major newspapers and print outlets on public policy, including USA Today, The Nation, Knight-Ridder wire services, Scripps Howard news services, Louisville Courier Journal, Los Angeles Daily News, Ms. Magazine, Working Woman, Executive Female, and The Washington Post. Dr. Burk is the editor of the Washington Feminist Faxnet, a national fax newsletter on issues of importance to women. The Washington Feminist Faxnet is cited often by news outlets nationwide, and has been featured in many, including Entertainment Tonight, America's Talking, Glamour Magazine, Ms. Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Playboy, The Dallas Morning News, Counterspin, and a host of others.

Institutional consulting clients have included the The University of Texas, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Kansas House of Representatives, the Smithsonian Institution, Women's International News Gathering Service, National Education Association, Search for Common Ground, the United States Information Agency, and the U.S. Department of State.

[NewHampshireDuo]

The National Council of Women's Organizations, which has about 6 million members from 160 groups....

I'll bet that 20 percent of each of these people belongs to more than one group which means the 6 million could be a lot less.

[kcvl]

Martha Burk, head of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy recently wrote a thoughtful article explaining the white male flight to the radical right, religious supremacists politics of the Republican party in the last election. This is the heart of it:

"The mostly male face of the Republican landslide is no surprise. The male/Republican female/Democratic trend has been evident since 1980, paralleling increasing Republican efforts to deprive women of abortion rights and consign them to second-class economic citizenship.

"Beside women and men sometimes have opposite priorities, and there was a smidgen of testosterone in this election. Many guys who don't actually own a gun still want to be able to buy one easily - just in case they're called on to clean up Dodge. Women tend to worry about getting raped at gunpoint. Basic difference.

"Does this mean we are head for a new politics of gender - a 'men's party' and a 'woman's party?' Hardly.

"The white male roar was in response to something much more basic: fear of the future. For the first time since World War II men are facing long-term systemic job insecurity. When people are fearful, they look for scapegoats and saviors. Republicans produced scapegoats - welfare (blacks), affirmative action (women), and immigrants (all the rest) - while pointing to themselves as saviors. Desperate white guys went for it. --

Martha Burk, president, Center for Advancement of Public Policy.

[MMcC]

Here is a link to the full response by Hootie Johnson:

http://www.golfdigest.com/newsandtour/index.ssf?/newsandtour/20020709johnson.html

[Joe Boucher]

What is it Rush calls them, Feminazis. Way to go, tell them to go to hadies.