Column: Augusta has girls, but barely a leader

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) a The men in green jackets can hardly contain themselves, sitting there smugly as though they'd done some thing to convert the game of tennis. Augusta National now has ladies members and, they now appear to think it's the addition to the Masters since flowering azaleas were grown on the rear nine, if it was a long time coming. "It is just awesome," Masters chairman Billy Payne said. Condoleezza Rice absolutely agrees, although for the time being she is not saying. The former secretary of state prevented editors Wednesday as she made her way around the Par 3 tournament, well dressed in a tailored green jacket over a brown skirt. Rice and Sc financier Darla Moore are trailblazers you might say, although few outside of tennis might confuse their admission last August to 1 of the most exclusive clubs in the world to be on a level with some of the great equality battles of the last century. Certainly, the parents of Augusta National hardly qualify as visionaries. For years the only areas for black people at the club were waiting on tables or holding the bags of members, and the notion that women may really be members didn't take hold until higher than a decade after Martha Burk tried futilely to rally support for the cause. Given that they are here, though, things could not be peachier. Appears the concerns of girls managing amok on the perfectly green fairways of Augusta National were, can we say, a little overblown. "These two women have been very special and it's only been delightful," Payne said. They could have been ten years before, too, but the green coats are when it comes to changing the customs that have served them so well a stubborn lot. His heels were dug by former chairman Hootie Johnson famously in when challenged by Burk, writing her at the time that Augusta National might someday admit girls "but that schedule will soon be mine and not at the idea of a bayonet." The schedule apparently needed ladies in 2012, and fortunately a few of them were available. They was able to lure an outstanding name in Rice, and being an added advantage put to rest any lingering debate on the account of America's most famous golf club. They might have gone further, but didn't. On a when Payne talked about women and boys putting and chipping on the 18th green the Sunday before next year's event and a before a 14-year-old from China tees off in the Masters, he also talked about Augusta National becoming "a beacon in the earth of golf" and doing its better to influence others in the overall game. Except, needless to say, the green coats have no plans of doing any of that. In his annual pre-Masters press conference, Payne refused to provide a situation on stomach putters, declined to have a stand on smoking on the course, and would not even examine details of Augusta National's new corporate party complex. And in the event that you think a delegation from Augusta will probably happen to be Scotland to urge members at all-male Muirfield a' variety of this year's British Open a to also enter today's modern world and accept girls, well, think again. "I think they should do what they might like to do, and I would perhaps not interject the way in which I feel on the issue," Payne said. A lot more like a flashlight when compared to a beacon, but that's OK. Golf supporters, for the absolute most part, do not care who wears the green coats, or the rules are set by who. They just desire to watch Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson battle it out on the back nine on Sunday in the major meaning the absolute most. Augusta National treated the problem of women members just how it wanted to, and if it took them more than it should, well, the green jackets are not entirely at fault. Those playing in the Masters never dared a or cared a' to push the issue, and there was certainly no outcry among golf supporters fortunate enough to wander around Amen Corner. Was it wrong to exclude half the population due to sex? Yes, but the indisputable fact that Augusta National is some sort of democracy must have been put to sleep about the time Bobby Jones and Clifford Richards built the area during the Great Depression. Achieved it qualify as one of the pressing social issues of our time? No, because just about the entire other half of the people that's not female had no potential for getting members, both. Inside the gates they could be only wrong, overbearing and hefty handed on several issues. It's another world, one we are lucky to be invited to see only one week a year a' and only so long as we toe the organization line. They do have lots of what to be proud of through the years. Admitting a few token women is not one of them. Have Tim Dahlberg is really a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg( at )ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

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