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The MASTERS 2003 Burk’s Crusade is a Bust Elizabeth Miller April 29, 2003 HF395 The Masters is one of the oldest and most prestigious tournaments in modern golf history, dating back to 1934. Every year the best players in the world of golf congregate in Augusta, Georgia all with the hopes of wearing the illustrious green jacket. Augusta National is the golf course that is home to the Masters, the green jackets and now national controversy. Late last year, the headlines of magazines, newspapers and websites began to buzz about Martha Burk and her crusade for women’s rights. The issue that caused all this commotion is the membership roster at Augusta National; there are no women on it. It is not unusual to find private golf clubs, such as Augusta National, that have all male membership but because the Masters, the tournament, is open to the public there is a lot of grey area as to whether Augusta National is practicing discrimination by not admitting females to their membership register. The Masters was created in 1934 by Bob Jones and Clifford Roberts. Winning a green jacket at Augusta is synonymous with winning the Masters the tournament. Each member of Augusta National is issued a green jacket to wear during the Masters to signify to whom the club belongs. Each professional golfer that wins the Masters is also issued a green jacket and is made an honorary member of Augusta National. Each member of Augusta National is allowed to have guests to play golf, among these guests are women. However, to this day there is not one female member at the Augusta National club. This fact has raised many eyebrows in the golf community but has never caused any formal protest. However a formal protest did start almost a year ago, on June 12th, 2002; when Augusta National President, Hootie Johnson received a letter from Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women’s Organizations. Burk urged Johnson and the membership of Augusta National to admit a female member into their currently all male club, prior to the 2003 Masters tournament. Johnson rebutted with a very public, very firm refusal, “there may well be a day when women will be invited to join our membership, but that timetable will be ours, and not at the point of a bayonet.” When Martha Burk first sent her letter to Hootie Johnson neither party had any idea what they were getting into. Burk trivialized the role of women in combat by stating that women are allowed to fight in Iraq but not golf at Augusta.
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