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Martha Versus Hootie

Sexism, controversy, and political antics on the golf course.

By Mike Oseroff

Mike Oseroff is Youth Radio’s resident sports commentator and columnist. Keep checking this space for his weekly updates! You can email him at sports@youthradio.org.

Golf is not what you would call an “intense” sport. Sure the competition gets pretty heated and a player’s margin for error is very little, but other than that, watching a golf tournament is pretty much up there with clipping your toenails on the excitement meter. There are no brawls between players, no physical contact. Fans don’t yell or paint their faces. Everything is quiet and proper. Hell, the golfers hardly even break a sweat. So when controversy breaks out in the golf world, people pay attention. And for the first time in a long time, there is some drama in putt-putt land.

If you haven’t been totally up on the whole Burk versus Hootie thing, I’ll give you the basic overview. Augusta National, a prestigious golf club in Augusta, Georgia, and the home of the famous Masters Tournament (you know, the one Tiger Woods won in 1997 in that orange shirt, which propelled him into the national spotlight), is a private and very expensive club of 300 members. The problem: there isn’t a single female member in it.

Enter Martha Burk, chairwomen for the National Council of Women’s Organizations. She’s a feminist all right, and she doesn’t think too kindly of the club’s policy. So in June of 2002, Burk wrote a letter to William Johnson, nicknamed “Hootie,” chairman of Augusta National, urging him to admit a woman to the club flowing with testosterone. The defiant Hootie didn’t oblige, and in a lengthy public statement, he lashed out at Martha and her women’s group with some very disparaging comments, claiming that, “our membership alone decides our membership, not some outside group with their own agenda.”

Naturally, Burk didn’t take too kindly to this, and has since been on a wild rampage of protests and mudslinging, as she tried to force a woman into Augusta by the time the Master’s tournament rolled around last week. Along the way she managed to annoy Hootie enough into cutting the tournament’s sponsors, get several members of the golf club to leave, and tick off just about half of Georgia’s population. She called Hootie a redneck, a pig, white trash, all the goodies. But six months later, Hootie’s stance on the matter hasn’t changed a bit, and Burk’s tirade is starting to get on more than just Augusta’s nerves.

Sure Burk has a strong argument. It wasn’t nice to say “No Girls Allowed” when we formed clubs as kids, and it isn’t nice to say it as grown ups. But a week before the Master’s, Burk staged an event that threw all of her credibility out the window, and made her even more of a laughingstock then she already was.

Burk had promised hundreds of supporters for her recent protest in front of Augusta. TV crews showed up with cameras and reporters galore, waiting to see what “superwoman” had in store for them and the club. Anticipation for the powerful protest was high as the sunny Georgia sky, and Burk didn’t disappoint — that is, didn’t disappoint in making a mockery of her campaign. Her protest was a freak show. Only a few dozen supporters showed up that day, but nevertheless Burk stood in front of a giant inflatable pig and acted out a skit with her fellow councilwomen with a cardboard cutout of a KKK member. They blasted techno music, and she swayed back and forth preaching, “Never Again.” Protestors against her protest stood nearby booing and holding signs like, “Make My Dinner.” It was truly ludicrous. And when Burk claimed that CBS televising the tournament was a disgrace to the women in the armed forces at war, she had crossed the line from zany to absurd.

Martha, while her intentions are good, is trying to represent something much bigger than her silly campaign, and she has so far done a poor job at it. Should there be a female member at Augusta? In my opinion, yes. The course is one of the most recognized staples in golf, and because of that, it is their duty to set an example for the rest of the world. Discrimination of women is wrong. However, Burk has gone about the issue all wrong. Not only has she made a joke out of women’s rights with her ridiculous antics, but she is being just as bad as Hootie by exchanging insults with him as if they were little kids.

Even though it is morally wrong to exclude women, the unfortunate fact is that Hootie has the right to decide. It is a private club, meaning those who are a part of Augusta have the right to choose their membership. And the bottom line, despite what Burk has tried to feed everyone, is that women’s membership at Augusta is the decision that the owners of the club have the right to make.

So Martha, if you want to keep on fighting for your cause, go right ahead. You can hoot and holler and make a fool of yourself all you want, but you’re still not going to see a female teeing off with Hootie on a Saturday anytime soon. So here is what I propose to you: build your own golf club that excludes male members. That way everything is fair, right?

Just kidding.

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