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| A Look Back: Nov. 13 1952: PGA Tour player and The Golf Channel analyst Mark Lye is born in Vallejo, Calif. 1959: LPGA Tour member Rosie Jones is born in Santa Ana, Calif. 1988: Curtis Strange beats Tom Kite in a playoff to win the Nabisco Golf Championships at Pebble Beach. 1991: Ian Woosnam wins the first 36-hole PGA Grand Slam of Golf, defeating Ian Baker-Finch by four shots. 1994: Raymond Floyd defeats Jim Albus in a playoff to win the Senior Tour Championship.
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Public Relations
Strategic
Shaft Technologies, which offers the patented SST PURE process
of golf shaft alignment, selects Jamison Group, an Orlando-based
golf specialty firm, to oversee and administer its media and public relations.
For
more...
Technology
Gold Mountain
Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash., chooses the Cybergolf Broadcast
System for use at its 36-hole facility. The system includes email blast
marketing, online survey creator and web-coupon maker among its easy-to-use
features.
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more...
Arizona course San
Pedro Golf Club chooses Crescent Systems to provide its
club management software. The course will open for public play on Jan.
25.
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more...
The University Club
of Baton Rouge, a private club designed for friends and supporters of
Louisiana State University athletics, adds the ParView
GPS System which gives players exact yardages and overviews of each hole.
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more...
Advertising
In September Winston Trails in Lake Worth, Fla., was the third golf course
to install the Logicool Point of Purchase Advertising
kiosk in its pro shop.
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more...
Players
American
John Daly makes his debut in China this week at the inaugural
TCL Classic, a Davidoff Tour event at Harbour Plaza Golf Club in Dongguan.
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more...
Equipment
Playing a Ben
Hogan Apex Tour golf ball, Bernhard Langer shared the Volvo Masters
title with Colin Montgomerie last week in Spain. Montgomerie will begin
using the ball in 2003.
For
more...
Never Compromise
introduces the TDP 5.3 to its premium line of TDP putters. The new putter
features the extremely lightweight material known as Trans Matter, allowing
for maximum weight to be moved to the heel and toe, and will begin shipping
immediately.
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more...
People
Michael J. Brown of Pine Valley Golf Club, John
C. Holsten of Aronimink Golf Club and Andy M. Karff
of Philmont Country Club are nominated and confirmed as new board members
of the Golf Association of Philadelphia's Executive Committee at the organization's
Annual Meeting.
For more...
Briefly
University of Florida chooses Shot Selector to provide
its course with cast bronze tee signs, tee markers, NCAA championship
plaques, in-ground yardage markers and replacement sprinkler markers.
Shot Selector also provided them with a scorecard and a yardage book.
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Fortune Brands, parent company of Achushnet and golf brands Titleist, Footjoy and Cobra, reaffirms its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter and full year. Chairman and CEO Norm Wesley said fourth-quarter earnings should be between 87 and 92 cents per diluted share. ...
BogeyPro was the only golf ball featured in the November holiday gift guide, as published by Golf Magazine. BogeyPro's Zero Distance, Poor Spin and No Control golf balls added a splash of humor to the magazines' list of usual suspects. ...
Beginning November 13th and continuing through its completion, the Junior Golf Scoreboard will publish the names of golfers who sign early letters of intent to play college golf. The Junior Golf Scoreboard is one of the key resources for more than 350 college and university coaches who are registered on the site and use it regularly. ...
Titanium component maker SMT Golf reports that Vince Howell won the year ending Long Distance Association Tour Championship with its new Nemesis head. ...
Avon Grips completes its new web site, www.avongrips.com, featuring several new models for the 2003 golf season. All of the new grips will debut in January at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. ...
Buff-Golf, the Buffalo (NY)-based online guide to golf in western New York, northwest Pennsylvania, and southern Ontario, plans to post reviews of equipment, apparel and training aids free of charge on its Web site (www.buff-golf.com).
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Reader's
Forum This past week in Europe the season-ending Volvo Masters culminated in two men winning the trophy. After two playoff holes, it was getting dark, so European Tour Executive Director Ken Schofield offered Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer the opportunity to share the victory. The European Ryder Cup partners accepted the offer, with Monty taking his 27th European Tour win and Langer his 42nd. Should splitting a title be permitted? Would you like to see this happen on U.S. Tours if a playoff is going on too long or conditions are not conducive to play? Let us know your opinions by sending your responses to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line RE: Share. Also include your first initial and last name, along with your city and state or country. |
Commentary
Hootie
Takes a Stand
This commentary by Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson was originally published in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.
In recent months a group called the National Council of Women's Organizations, led by their spokeswoman Martha Burk, has been threatening Augusta National Golf Club and anyone even remotely associated with us for allegedly discriminating against women.
As the chairman of that club, I'd like to share some of my thoughts with you about the debate that has now spent several months meandering through the national press. Ms. Burk has misrepresented the issue.
For men of all backgrounds to seek a place and time for camaraderie with other men is as constitutionally and morally proper as it is for women to seek the same with women. Men and women have always occasionally sought out single-sex spheres in certain corners of their social lives, a habit that has always been a positive trapping of civil society. Women gather in book groups to study literature, in investment clubs to discuss the markets, or in fitness clubs to exercise. That they are able to make those choices is a fundamental freedom that most Americans believe is proper and important.
That standard goes both ways-that men seek the companionship of other men through sports and other leisure pursuits is equally desirable. The fact that Augusta National presents the Masters, a tournament admired world-wide, does not mean that the right to do so should be abandoned, let alone scorned.
If we wish to open all private organizations to men and women, as Ms. Burk and NCWO wish to do with Augusta National, the end is near for many uncontroversial and longstanding private groups. Women's colleges like Smith and Wellesley, historically black colleges like Spelman, the Girl Scouts of America, the Junior League, fraternities and sororities, would all have to be dissolved or radically changed from the single-sex profile that has become an essential part of their character and, indeed, the reason they are sought after. Do they, too, "discriminate"?
At Augusta National, I and the other members enjoy playing golf with friends. Some of these members are business leaders who have been hailed for their work on behalf of women. At the same time, they enjoy the fellowship of this traditionally men's social club, one where golf serves as a diversion from life's more pressing business. I take seriously the original intent of the founder of this club, Bobby Jones, that there is virtue in a place of private retreat.
That was the original idea behind the tournament we present each year-to gather friends, by invitation, one week each year for sportsmanship. Mr. Jones invited his fellow golfers, and, out of regard for his legacy, the competition has become a major event in golf. Millions of Americans have enjoyed watching the tournament as patrons or on television. Over the last five years, the Masters has contributed over $15.5 million to charity, $3.3 in 2002 alone. Still, for more than seven decades, and during the several months a year we are open, the club has remained as it started, a place for friends to gather.
The notion that Augusta National is an enclave of sexist good old boys is ludicrous. Women regularly play the course, with no restrictions. All guests are treated the same whether they are here to play golf or as patrons of the tournament. It is also incorrect to believe that Ms. Burk speaks for all women on this subject. She does not. In the latest issue of Golf for Women magazine, columnist Sally Jenkins, supports the right of Augusta National members to do as they please. Why, she asks, "am I soft on Augusta? Because it is tradition-bound, invitation-only private club, and I would defend both privacy and tradition with a gun."
Hundreds of letters from women have come to the club in support not only of our policy, but favoring our resolve not to be told what to do by an individual who knows nothing about us. A national survey that will be released tomorrow reveals that over 70% of Americans - men and women - support the club's right to make its own membership decisions. That is what we intend to do. Our members have historically shared a kindred spirit and a camaraderie that we view as being the heart and soul of our private club. Whether, or when, we have women as members is something that this club will decide alone, and in private.
How long Ms. Burk and her agenda will be given a voice is up to the media. But how long the public will pay attention is another question. Perhaps this kind of coercion is simply the way by which some political groups try to increase their own membership. It is for others to decide, from where they stand, whether threat-based tactics are appropriate.
But from here, it feels like some things are worth defending, and sometimes that means taking a stand. In my mind and in my heart, I know this is one of them.