Injustice looms large at Augusta

Augusta National Golf Club is a private club. As such, anti-discrimination laws do not directly apply to the club’s membership policies. Augusta National does not admit women to its membership. Augusta National is the site of the Masters professional golf tournament, the most prestigious event on the PGA tour.

In 1990 Augusta National did not admit African-Americans as members. That year the club quietly changed its policy to avoid what was becoming a firestorm of protest, particularly with Tiger Woods on the horizon.

Now the 6 million member National Council of Women’s Organizations has formally protested to Augusta National the no-women membership policy.

CBS, which broadcasts the event, will do so this year, if indeed CBS does broadcast the event, without sponsors. Because of the uproar, Augusta National officials wanted to avoid sponsors being cast as discriminators, so Augusta National agreed to cover the television costs of the tournament.

Augusta National and its chairman, Hootie Johnson, have refused to move the other way and drop the no-women policy.

When the civil rights movements of the 1960s sought to enforce Constitutional equal rights through protests and actions in the streets, voices said, “Why can’t they just stay in their place?” Those voices have moved to Augusta National.

When tennis great Arthur Ashe battled the many tennis enclaves of “white only” members, the voices asked why he couldn’t leave well enough alone. The voices have moved to Augusta National.

CBS, Augusta National and every player in the event is faced with looking in the mirror and saying, “If I am involved with this, I am involved in sexual discrimination.” Those who ate at white-only lunch counters and those who sat in the front of the bus made the same decision to be part of the problem rather that part of the solution.

No one said it would be easy. CBS wants to keep an event it is synonymous with and one that brings it prestige. The players want to play in this classic event of golf. Augusta National, well, they want to continue to discriminate until they feel like stopping.

Club chairman Johnson said maybe women some day, “but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet.”

It was at the point of a bayonet that black children finally went through the doors of segregated schools. It was at the point of a bayonet that civil rights marches opened doors to lunch counters, school buses and employment.

At the time, governors, congressmen, and citizens all chimed in with unprintable epitaphs aimed at black children, while telling the “do-gooder” civil rights people to mind their own business.

Can you hear the echoes at Augusta National?

Sometimes you’re either for or against. Sometimes you’re the solution or the problem. Sometimes actions are just wrong, and there is no middle ground.

Augusta National is discriminating against women. That is wrong.

One way or another, you step up to the tee.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.