se came on July 9 from chairman Hootie Johnson in the form of a statement released to the media, in which he asserted that ô[t]here 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. . . .We will not be bullied, threatened or intimidatedö (Logan 1). Johnson rested his freedom to decide if and when a woman could ever gain Augusta membership on the clubÆs First Amendment right to determine its own membership. Moreover, he noted that associations such as the Girl Scouts and the LadiesÆ Professional Golf Association (LPGA) are single-sex, as are many womenÆs colleges and clubs (Logan 1).
The first Masters tournament was played at Augusta National in 1934. Today, the tournament is one of the most lucrative and highest-rated golf sports events of the year, capturing an audience of 40.1 million people in 2002 (Chambers). The tournament is held ever year at Augusta National Golf and Country Club in Augusta, Georgia, whose all-male membership is a virtual whoÆs who of corporate governance in the United States. For example, members include billionaire investor Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; Jack Welch, former Chairman of General Electric; Douglas Warner III, former CEO of J.P. Morgan; Robert Allen, former CEO of AT&T; and former Secretary of State George Shultz (Chambers). Other Augusta members run or have run the large corporations that currently sponsor the Masters tournament, including Sanford Weill, CEO of Citigroup, and Lou Gerstner, Chairman of IBM. Moreover, Robert Winship Woodruff, a chairman of Coca-Cola, was an early and influential member of Augusta National (Chambers).
There is no question of Augusta NationalÆs significance in the U.S.Æs corporate landscape. But the club has also served as a meeting place for important political officials as well. For example, in ôThe Masters: Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta,...