Posted on 09/03/2002 12:46:50 PM PDT by jern
Tuesday, September 3, 2002 Burk says players 'need to take a moral stand'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPN.com news services
The fight between the Augusta National Golf Club and Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO), grew even a bit more testy on Tuesday.
Appearing on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, Burk said that her organization will begin targeting PGA Tour players in a bid to force Augusta National to allow women members.
The players "need to take a moral stand," Burk told Patrick.
"I think Augusta will eventually see that it will be in the best interests of their club ... to do the right thing and allow women members," she later said in the interview.
Through a club spokesman, Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson issued a written response to Burk. It said:
"1. This is not a legal issue. The Masters has a constitutional right to its private membership.
"2. Martha Burk tries to equate this to the Shoal Creek racial issue in 1990, but they are totally different. In America, there are women's colleges, the Girl Scouts of America and women's health clubs throughout the country. In Canada and overseas, there are women-only golf clubs.
"3. The Club possibly will have a woman member in the future, but it should be the Club's decision, not the decision of an outside group that knows little about the Club or Tournament. In Ms. Burk's initial letter, she placed a deadline on the Club to have a woman member (2003), and discussed the sponsors of the Tournament.
"4. The winner in this sponsorship issue is the viewer. There will now be 12 ½ hours of commercial free golf coverage.
"5. What is presently happening is a corporate campaign. The National Council of Women's Organizations is targeting anyone associated with the Masters.
"6. The reason we chose not to ask the sponsors to participate in 2003 was to spare them the inevitability of a continued corporate campaign that could have included protests and boycotts.
"7. Dr. Burk is now telling individuals what to watch on television. In three online polls conducted this weekend, nearly 90 percent of respondents said they would continue to watch the Masters on CBS. Over 4.3 million women watched the Masters last year.
"8. The Masters and Augusta National are different. One is a private club, and the other is a world-class sporting event that is completely inclusive.
"9. The Masters is being used as a symbol. Several other Clubs do not allow women to play or even to enter the grounds. Women play at Augusta National regularly, and there are no restrictions on tee times. Women played over 1,000 rounds at the Club last year."
Last week, Burk said that she will talk with CBS about its televising of The Masters, which will be commercial-free next year. Johnson announced that The Masters will drop its sponsors -- IBM, Coca-Cola and Citigroup -- to shield them from any controversy over the club's all-male membership.
Augusta National has not had a woman member in its 69-year history. It has had black members since 1990.
Can I ask a silly question? Allowing women to be members of a golf club does NOT mean that guys have to golf with them. I guess I just don't understand the He-Man Women Hater's Club aspect to this.Sure, just as allowing men to be members of a female only health club does NOT mean that women have to lift weights with them. I guess I just don't understand the She-Woman Man Hater's Club aspect to this.
patent +AMDG
It's not about the golf. It's about their rights as a private club.
Augusta National is a private club, and it has a right to allow whoever it wants. It has a right to be an all-mens club if it so chooses.
Why are you equating the freedom of association, as well as brotherhood, with hating. That's a communist ploy, and its time people stopped being deceived by such.
LOL!
The last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it! ;-)
BTW, do try to get that "CAPS LOCK" key fixed, as there's no need to shout. Eh? :-)
Honey, I don't know what your doing here, but you're sitting on a gold mine!
Just because you don't understand , or think it proper, doesn't mean they should not do it, however!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's a free choice thing!
Keep dreaming. The LPGA's top players, even with the advent of titanium clubs and other tech advances, can not hit the ball as far as Bobby Jones and Sam Snead of the early 1930's were capable with hickory shafts and hard rubber potatoes.
Just like the problem with women firefighters, upper body and leg strength does make a difference.
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