December 17, 2002

Golf Beat Report: All Augusta, all the time. Here's the latest: Martha Burk has launched a new website where she intends to "out" corporations that "sanction sex discrimination at Augusta National Golf Club." Specifically, she intends to list those corporations who have a high-ranking executive who is an Augusta member. On the flip side, another website has launched that collects links to sites that are protesting Martha Burk and her protest. Finally, in follow-up to the New York Times item two weeks ago (indicating that the Times had spiked two sports columns that had supported Tiger Woods because they were in conflict with the Times' op-ed stance), the Times apparently had a change of heart (albeit under great pressure), and did post the two columns. This story is too bizarre.

What else is going on? Well, once again the U.S. lost a team competition, as Phil Mickelson and David Toms double bogeyed the last whole to lose the "World Cup" to Japan. Craig Stadler and son Kevin won the father/son challenge. And Tiger had knee surgery that will likely keep him from playing the first few events of 2003.

posted by jmpeterson to golf at 09:10 AM - 4 comments

From the Tiger knee surgery article:

Woods, the winner of two majors and three other PGA Tour events in 2002, said on his Web site he has been playing in pain most of the year, and he could be seen wincing several times during the recent PGA Grand Slam of Golf and Target World Challenge. Nevertheless, he won the Grand Slam by 14 shots and finished second in the Target.
Hahahahaha. The only way the other guys will beat him is if he's in a wheelchair. And he'd probably still come in second.

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:55 AM on December 17, 2002

I really wish Martha Burk would just STFU about this. It's their private club and they can decide who can and can not join it. If they get their jollies from having only rich and powerful white men in their club, so be it. The public coffers don't support them, so why should we care/have a say about who is in their club?

posted by grum@work at 10:45 AM on December 17, 2002

I really wish Martha Burk would just STFU about this She can't/won't because she's getting so much wonderful free publicity. It doesn't matter if she eventually wins or loses this battle -- she's raised the profile of the NCWO exponentially. And to play devil's advocate, the argument goes that you really can't separate "The Masters" (which is ostensibly open to the public) from "Augusta National" -- since they hold themselves to the public and reap benefits from The Masters, they shouldn't be able to defend themselves by arguing how "private" they are. But I don't buy that argument either. The best analysis of this whole issue I've heard is that they're both "right." There is no legal issue -- the question comes down to other factors society wants to promote or protect. In Burk's case, it's the fact that society believes discrimination on the basis of sex is a bad thing. In Augusta's case, it's the fact that society favors the freedom to associate with whomever we want. I tend to come down on the side of Augusta because of my libertarian streak. I just hate the notion that one group gets to decide what's "right" and compel another group -- through threats of bad publicity and boycots -- to do what the former wants. Like grum indicated, if a bunch of rich men get their jollies sitting around together, good for them. No one's stopping anyone -- Martha Burk, a group of women, a group of gay Hispanic stockbrokers -- from starting their own club and making it "better" than ANGC.

posted by jmpeterson at 11:03 AM on December 17, 2002

ugh, all my links are screwed up. sorry about that.

posted by jmpeterson at 11:57 AM on December 18, 2002

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