Thursday, October
17, 2002
Woods:
Masters debate should be private
By Doug Ferguson
Associated Press
LAKE BUENA VISTA,
Fla. — Without taking sides or offering to be the mediator,
Tiger Woods said the best way to resolve the membership debate
at Augusta National is to hash it out in private.
“There’s
no substitute for looking someone in the eye,” he said Wednesday.
The chances of that
happening are remote.
Martha Burk, head
of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, sent the
club a letter in June asking it to add a female member so its
all-male membership does not become an issue at the 2003 Masters.
Augusta chairman
Hootie Johnson replied in a terse, three-sentence letter that
club issues are private and there would be no further discussion.
He then sent a three-page statement to the media, saying Augusta
would not be bullied into having a female member.
Woods said he would
like to see a female member at Augusta, but that private clubs
have a right to set their own policies.
“Hootie is right,
and Martha is right. That’s the problem,” Woods said
after a practice round for the Disney World Golf Classic. “They’re
both right, but they’re going about it the wrong way. If
they both sat down and talked about it, it would be resolved a
lot better than what’s going on right now.”
Burk said she was
pleased Woods repeated the need for Augusta National to admit
a female member but disappointed his position was not stronger.
“I’d like
to know what about sex discrimination he thinks is right,”
Burk said. “He seems to want to apologize out of the situation
by saying he’s going to be criticized no matter what he does.
I can’t conceive of an individual criticizing Tiger for speaking
out against discrimination.
“If others had
taken that view, he’d be a caddie at Augusta. He wouldn’t
be a player.”
Burk said she offered
to meet with Johnson at his convenience, in person or over the
phone, and was accused by the Augusta chairman of trying to arrange
secret meetings.
“Perhaps Tiger
can convince Hootie that his approach is a little militant,”
Burk said.
Burk has criticized
Woods for refusing to take a stronger position ever since he first
talked about the membership issue during the British Open.
Woods said at Muirfield
that private clubs are entitled to their own rules, and there
was nothing he could do about the membership at Augusta.
He said he stands
by his initial opinion.
“Is it unfair?
Yes. Do I want to see a female member? Yes. But it’s our
right to have any club set up the way we want to,” Woods
said.
“Everyone wants
to have someone say what they believe in. That’s human nature.
Everyone wants you to support their cause.”
Johnson has said
Augusta does not have exclusionary policies, although it has never
had a female member in its 70 years, and it wasn’t until
1990 that the club admitted a black member.
As Burk began to
pressure corporate sponsors of the Masters, Johnson responded
in late August by dropping them for next year’s tournament,
making the Masters the only commercial-free sports broadcast on
network television.
In recent weeks,
the chief executives of American Express, Citigroup Corp. and
the U.S. Olympic Committee — all members at Augusta —
have issued statements supporting female members at the home of
the Masters.
Woods thinks the
issue will be settled “one way or another” by April,
when he tries to become the first player to win three straight
Masters.
“I thought that
Hootie and the membership were going to put a female member in
there, but now they are being forced to do it,” Woods said.
“That’s one of the reasons why Hootie is pretty upset
about the whole issue. He’s been forced to do something he
was already going to do.”
Burk said Woods was
being naive.
“If Hootie was
going to do that anyway, he could have told me in private and
we could have avoided all these months of controversy,” Burk
said. “I think they did not want to do it and seized upon
our letter as an excuse.”
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