Extra Ordinary Ideas

Augusta: One Last Round

On the heels of the Masters, Julian Sanchez bravely takes one last poke at the hopelessly overanalyzed Augusta membership row. Not only should Augusta’s choice to exclude women from membership be legal, he argues, but it’s really pretty unobjectionable given that both genders find it more relaxing to occasionally retreat to single sex environments. Women tend to indulge this desire more than men, he points out.

He concludes quixotically that - despite the foregoing - he “wouldn’t join a club like Augusta,” but fails to explain why he would not.

I think I might know why.

Augusta’s choice to accept only male members should absolutely be legal. Julian and I agree on this much. We also agree that there’s nothing wrong with a male bowling club, or a ladies-only supper club. Or even an all male golf club, for that matter.

The problem with Augusta is that it has become – mostly by virtue of the Masters – the pinnacle of the American golf world. It is a best-of-kind institution, and its choices have a large cultural impact on the whole sport. Accordingly, its reasons for excluding women from its membership are culturally, though not politically, important.

Even if Julian is correct that Augusta’s rule is motivated by the same harmless desire to dress badly and make obnoxious jokes that inspires other single sex social organizations, an absolutely top notch organization – one that stands for something large and aspirational – is not a classy place to exclude members in order to satisfy that need. Julian points to single sex colleges. Well and good. But if Harvard were still single sex, we’d hear about it, and rightly so.

But contrary to Julian’s suggestion, I don’t think Augusta’s membership rules have much to do with wanting to sneak away for a round or two in an all male environment. As Augusta representatives themselves endlessly point out: Women can play at Augusta! They also populate the clubhouse at lunches and dinners. They’re all over the place. They just aren’t allowed a voice in running the organization, or the status associated with membership.

That reality makes Augusta’s male-only rule a statement without substance. It accords status, and little else, unequally between genders. It is an assertion that running this best of breed golf club is still men’s business.

If I were a man, I wouldn’t join that club either.

Posted by Marie Gryphon on April 16, 2003