The Future is Now

A decade ago, the National Council of Women’s Organizations pushed Augusta National Golf Club to end its practice of excluding women from the membership rolls of the club. When it refused, the golf club, home to the prestigious Masters tournament, lost television sponsors for two years.

At the time, the club chairman Hootie Johnson defended his decision the way that any old boys club (literally!) or seven-year-old with a tree fort might – by saying that it was a matter of “camaraderie” and that having girls around would spoil the parties.

Of course, private clubs have long used those same arguments to discriminate against people of color and Jews. Augusta did not accept its first black member until 1990. Golly, those golf clubs sure seem welcoming and chummy!

Anyway, back in 2002 Johnson said that, “A woman may be a member of this club one day, but that is out in the future.”

It seems that the unimaginable Jetson era of women playing golf while wearing green jackets has arrived. Augusta National Golf Club announced today that it has invited former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become members and they have both accepted.

Rice and Moore will be the first women to don the club’s signature green jackets when the new season opens in October.