Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2012 - 7

Cracking the Grass Ceiling
(editor's letter
)
D
id you hear about the grass ceiling
breaking?
No, I'm not talking about the
fact that the doubting Spaniard Sergio Garcia
recently won the Wyndham Championship,
his first tour win in four years. I'm talking
about the news that the Augusta National
Golf Club, home of The Masters Tournament
and golf's first seasonal major, is admitting its
first female members, two power-suited gals
named Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore.
Voila-one more glass, or in this case, grass
ceiling is cracked on behalf of equal access for
women into the privileged grill rooms and
One more glass, or in this case, grass
ceiling is cracked on behalf of equal
access for women.
greens of one of America's most prominent
private (and exclusive) clubs.
I have two daughters, ages 11 and 14. While
the change in club membership policy at Augusta
makes not a wit of difference to them
now, I hope it suggests meaningful change for
their future selves.
Still, it's significant-and it marks a watershed
moment not only for women golfers,
but also for golfers of any minority status.
Just a generation or two ago, it was fairly
common policy to discriminate against minorities
based on race, religion and gender.
African-American, Jewish and Catholic
American golfers formed their own clubs
here in Minnesota, because they couldn't
gain access to established private clubs.
It was the same elsewhere. Supreme Court
Justice Arthur Goldberg chided President
Kennedy for his membership in the Links
Country Club because it excluded Jews. Kennedy,
an Irish American Catholic, supposedly
answered with a chuckle, " Hell, Arthur, they
don't even allow Catholics. "
In 1990, Hazeltine National Golf Club in
Chaska admitted its first African-American
member. The club was known for its progressive
membership policies from the beginning;
it had admitted a Jewish member as one of
the founding members in 1962. In the mid1980s,
the club made access to tee times equal
for members of both genders, something
many clubs struggled with well into the '90s.
The club also elected its first female president
in 1992.
Under Minnesota's Open Space law, the
state denies tax exemptions (and lower property
taxes) to private clubs if they discriminate
on the basis of gender or marital status;
these clubs must show that they do not discriminate
within their bylaws, rules or regulations
in order to qualify for preferential tax
treatment.
Burning Tree, a private men's club located
in Chevy Chase, Md., chooses to forgo similar
tax exemptions in order to maintain its maleonly
status for its members, who've included
members of congress, former presidents and
even Supreme Court justices (except Sandra
Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia
Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, of course), a
rare move among private clubs.
I really doubt gaining access to Augusta
National will materially impact the respective
futures of the likes of Rice and Moore, who
have already achieved great heights on their
own merits. But if it is a small yet significant
step toward a greater measure of equality for
my own girls and their future opportunities,
then I raise my Mint Julep and toast Condi
and Darla's good fortune.
See you on the tee.
W.P. Ryan, Editor-in-Chief
www.mngolf.org
Fall 2012 MINNESOTAGOLFER 5
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2012

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