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Broad Cast
The Masters is, perhaps, golf s most prestigious golf tournament. It ranks up there with the three other majors : The U.S. Open, The British Open, and The PGA Championship.
Augusta National, a prestigious golf club, runs the event and may be the most exclusive golf club and course in the United States. Augusta National has no female members. They don t want any. They re not seeking any. None are invited.
Of course, this angers some women s groups. And they weren t about to let this go without action. In 2003, they lobbied Augusta National s membership committee. Their attempts to have female members admitted were ignored. These women started applying social, political, and peer pressure on them. Each member simply lit another cigar with a new one-hundred dollar bill, elbowed the guy next to him and laughed, Ain t those dames cute?
Those dames played their trump card. They jumped the media, Augusta National doesn t allow female members. We are outraged by this and are calling for a boycott of all the sponsors of Augusta National s precious tournament, The Masters.
For a while, these ladies hit the media hard and often. Until. They. Realized. That there were no sponsors.
That year The Masters was played on television sans commercials.
In the face of all this pressure and possible negative press, August National decided not to put their sponsors in a compromising position. They pulled all televised sponsorship and were accepting of none. August National alone paid to have The Masters televised. The boycotters were left with nothing to boycott and no one to pressure. There placards and sandwich boards were left blank, silent, impotent.
Whether you believe that any private club can selectively chose their membership based on their own subjective criteria or you believe that there are certain criteria that should never be used (gender, race, religion, sexual preference, et. al.), you have to like Augusta National s moxie.
This bit was originally published sometime in 2003. Get used to reading some old stuff as I update and repopulate the JimFo Archives.
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