Leave Augusta Alone

TIMOTHY MEYER
While topics such as Iraq and the economy dominate the headlines of political news, another saga of potentially magnificent proportions is increasingly gaining attention as an afterthought to the main news stories. But the story of a leading women's group pressuring Augusta National Golf Club to allow female members is not merely an afterthought, but instead poses a threat to the establishment of male tradition. The current assault on Augusta is just the latest incident in a fringe feminist movement's mission to undermine the relevance of males in modern society. In an era where strictly adhered to political correctness is the trend, values like tradition and history have been forgotten.

Golf is not the proper forum to make a gender-based political statement. Individuals like Martha Burk are incapable of appreciating the sanctity of golf, along with its rich history and tradition, and that is the value on the line regarding the situation at Augusta---tradition. Since the club's inception, society s finest gentlemen have come to Augusta to play golf- --men, not men and women. As a private club, Augusta National reserves the right to set its own policy regarding the makeup of its membership. Just like fraternities, sororities, or any other private group has the ability to control the flow of their membership and select their members carefully, Augusta should too be afforded that right.

At the center of the controversy is William Woodward Johnson, the 71 year old President of Augusta National affectionately known as Hootie to its membership. Johnson attended his first Masters golf tournament at the age of four and is an Augusta native, making him well versed and pedigreed in his defense of Augusta's right to determine its own membership. To radical feminists like Martha Burk, Johnson is the enemy. To defenders of male tradition, the golfing community, and anyone who recognizes a private club's constitutional right to select its own membership, Hootie is a hero, a traditional conservative Southerner who stands his ground and refuses to cave in on his principles. Recently Burk has enlisted the help of Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition and boasted to the media that she will organize a picket of Augusta National during the Masters this April. Such action only serves to demonstrate that this woman, and I use that term very loosely, is gradually using the site of golf's most hallowed fairways to make a political statement in the name of aggressive, vindictive feminism. The more Burk cries and waves her hands outside the gates of Augusta, the more she begins to resemble an outcast teenage girl who no one wanted as a date for the prom. If she wants to establish a woman's golf club where women can enjoy camaraderie, she may do so. But she has no right to try to bulldoze her way into Augusta National.

I am not opposed to women playing at Augusta National based on the thought that they do not have equal rights to men; rather, I am a staunch advocate for the protection and preservation of the small tradition men have left in the world today. Augusta's place as a haven for gentlemen to relax and be men is a part of that tradition. Sometimes men just want to be men and spend time with each other for male bonding. Men don t ask to join women when they decide to go out shopping with the gals. That simply is what the Augusta case boils down to---men have a right to spend time together, sans women, to be men. They have a right to light up a cigar, play 18 holes, talk about their portfolios, and then sit around afterwards and reminisce about that great shot one of them had on Hole 12 at Amen's Corner. Because Augusta is a private club with exclusive membership, as opposed to the local chip and putt, they have the right to sit around and enjoy those times with other men only, if they so choose.

I have played golf in the company of women and found it to be a rather enjoyable experience. Occasionally they chatted a bit too much while I was trying to putt or I became agitated at them trying to fix their hair when they should have been teeing off, but overall there were no major complaints. Golf is a sport of dignity and society and as long as golfers conduct themselves with decency and class, I say to swing away. Fortunately for me, the women I have played golf with were not overbearing feminists with an agenda to promote themselves with every swing of a golf club. They also support Augusta's right to choose its own membership, even if it excludes them. So does Nancy Lopez, who is a member of golf's Hall of Fame and a great standard-bearer for women golfers, yet has gone on record in support of Augusta. That being said, opposing women golfing at Augusta National is not taking away their right to drive or vote, it is simply allowing a private club to set its own policy.

Johnson rightfully refuses to give in to Burk's barrage of aggressive, angry feminism. He remains strong in his convictions, despite a few of his club members already resigning as a result of Burk s attacks. As he so firmly has said, Some things are worth defending, and sometimes that means taking a stand. In my heart and in my mind, I know this is one of them. In the proud tradition of the South, may Hootie Johnson continue to be a Stonewall in defense of Augusta National and stand his ground in the war of feminist aggression.