Augusta National Golf Club welcomed its first women as members on Monday. They are former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice of California and Darla Moore, a business executive from South Carolina. Women had been excluded from joining the private club for 80 years. It was slow to adapt to social change in other ways as well: the first African American member joined in 1990, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Club and Masters Tournament Chairman Billy Payne announced the news on Aug. 20. “We are fortunate to consider many qualified candidates for membership at Augusta National. Consideration with regard to any candidate is deliberate, held in strict confidence and always takes place over an extended period of time. The process for Condoleezza and Darla was no different,” said Payne in a statement.
Rice and Moore are both extraordinary. Rice was the first African American female national security adviser, and is a political science professor at Stanford University. She is a concert pianist, an author, and a fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
Moore heads Rainwater, Inc., an investment company. She is a former banker and former University of South Carolina trustee.
Moore and Rice are both golf fans, according to Payne.
He had previously been circumspect about plans to revise the club’s membership policy. As a private club, it had no legal obligation to admit women, yet the Masters Tournament is a global broadcast event and large commercial enterprise with corporate sponsors.
During this year’s April Masters Tournament, the club and tournament sponsors were criticized for tolerating the policy of excluding women. The female CEO of major sponsor IBM was not invited to join, though traditionally the top executives of sponsors become members. IBM head Virginia Rometty is both a golfer and a golf fan.
Former Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson famously dug in his heels on the matter, saying the club might admit women some day, but “not at the point of a bayonet.” He was referring to 2003 protests against the policy. Martha Burk, chairwoman of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, led a group of protesters at the 2002 and 2003 Masters.
According to NBC News, Burk said, “I knew we would outlast them.”
Now that the Rubicon has been crossed, Payne celebrated his clubs’ new members. “These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership,” Payne said in a statement. “It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall.”
President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for Augusta to admit women during the tournament this spring. Both men commented on the milestone on Monday.
According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, the president “thinks it was too long in coming, but obviously thinks it’s the right thing to do.”
Romney congratulated Rice in a Twitter post “Congrats to my friend @CondoleezzaRice for joining Augusta National & congrats to Augusta National for admitting its first female members.”
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