3 Reasons Why Augusta National Waited so Long to Admit Women | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

As a private club, Augusta National gets to make up the rules for membership.

Country club membership is a tricky thing. Pressure put on the PGA Tour after the 1990 PGA Championship at the whites-only Shoal Creek in Alabama forced the Tour to stop hosting tournaments that had whites-only memberships. That year, Augusta National accepted their first male African-American members.

When Martha Burk decided to protest the gender discrimination at the 2003 Masters, the club was put immediately on the defensive and drew a line in the sand saying they would include females for membership when they chose and not because they were dictated to. They released CBS’ television sponsors from their obligations for two years, and Burk’s effort lost steam and became a footnote of history.

We will never know how close Augusta National was before 2003 in integrating membership via gender, but Burk’s actions more than likely delayed the decision by a few years—maybe as much as 10.

The people who dictate to their partners the language that can be used on the television broadcast and have banned Gary McCord after his usage of the words “bikini wax” and “body bags” on a telecast were not going to let anyone dictate the terms of acceptance, no matter how right she might have been or how pig-headed they looked because of it.

They knew the law sided on their favor, and as much as Burk and others were going to push in public, they had no legal ground to stand on which to stand.

Augusta National has always and will always march to the beat of their own drum.