BOYS CLUB NO MORE: A decade after women’s-rights leader Martha Burk (left) launched a campaign to get Augusta National’s then-chairman, Hootie Johnson (center), to begin admitting women, banking-industry titan Darla Moore (right) has been invited to don the exclusive club’s traditional green jacket of membership.
GREEN-LIGHTED: Condoleezza Rice, who took up golf just seven years ago, will be joining the formerly all-male Augusta National Golf Club (
)
BOYS CLUB NO MORE: A decade after women’s-rights leader Martha Burk (left) launched a campaign to get Augusta National’s then-chairman, Hootie Johnson (center), to begin admitting women, banking-industry titan Darla Moore (right) has been invited to don the exclusive club’s traditional green jacket of membership. (
)
The Augusta National Golf Club has ended a bitter, decade-long battle over its male-only membership by welcoming its first two female members, including Condoleezza Rice.
“This is a joyous occasion,” Chairman Billy Payne said yesterday in welcoming the former secretary of state and Darla Moore, a financier.
The exclusive club, home of The Masters, has been under attack since 2002, when Martha Burk of the National Council of Women’s Organizations began a campaign to end the gender ban.
Hootie Johnson, then the club chairman, responded by saying women might eventually wear the traditional green jacket of its membership, “but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet.”
After Burk led a protest at the club’s entrance in 2003, both sides dug in their heels.
A source said that Rice and Moore were considered for membership in 2007 but that the decision to grant it came only this year.
Augusta National is traditionally close-lipped about who gets in and how. But it is believed to have about 300 members, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who pay more than $10,000 for membership plus hefty annual dues.
The 57-year-old Rice took up golf at age 50 after becoming secretary of state in 2005 and has played at Augusta National several times as a guest.
She said she “looked forward to playing golf, renewing friendships and forming new ones through this very special opportunity.”
Rice told Golf Digest last year that she was “a very good putter” and “very aggressive on the course.”
“My inner Phil Mickelson comes out quite frequently. I’ve played with Phil, so I can say that,” she added.
While Rice was being congratulated by golf buddies like Tiger Woods, Burk claimed victory.
“Oh my God. We won,” she said.
“It’s about 10 years too late for the boys to come into the 20th century, never mind the 21st century. But it’s a milestone for women in business.”
Payne, who took over in 2006 when Johnson retired, said the club was not treating Rice and Moore any differently — though the club rarely announces its new members.
“These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf, and both are well known and respected by our membership,” he said.
Moore, 58, of South Carolina, had been mentioned as a possible Augusta National member before Burk’s first protest.
Now a partner in the private investment firm Rainwater Inc., she was the first woman to get a cover profile in Fortune magazine.
“Augusta National has always captured my imagination, and is one of the most magically beautiful places anywhere in the world, as everyone gets to see during The Masters each April,” she said.
Moore, whose net worth stands at $2.3 billion, first gained recognition in the 1980s, when she became the highest-paid woman in the banking industry.
Despite her wealth and shattering of glass ceilings, she avoids the spotlight and prefers to give money to charity anonymously.
“She’s a very loyal friend, just an incredible person,” said Joe Rogers, chief operating officer of the Lake City Partnership Council, co-founded by Moore. “She’s smart, funny, intense, incredibly high energy; she’s unconventional in a very good way.”