So of all the sports stories to catch my attention in the past few days, I have to say I was surprised that one of them included Warren Buffett. Last week, Buffett made a public statement in opposition of the policy of what is probably the most prestigious golf club in the country, Augusta National, in Augusta, Georgia. This club hosts what is, in the minds of most, the biggest professional golf tournament in the world, The Masters, once every year.
Winning The Masters is comparable to winning the Indianapolis 500 or the singles title at Wimbledon. You cannot be considered as one of the best golfers of all time unless you have worn the green jacket that is given to the champion. Jack Nicklaus has won the tournament six times. Tiger Woods has won it four times. Tom Watson twice, Gary Player three times, Arnold Palmer four times. If you want to know about the pressure that comes with trying to win The Masters, just ask Phil Mickelson. He was known as the guy that could never make the shots when it mattered most until he finally won a green jacket in 2004.
Being able to say that you have won a green jacket is something that all professional golfers would love to say. Winners of The Masters join a prestigious and select club. What is at the root of the controversy surrounding Buffett's comments is how paying members of The Augusta club feel that their club is even more prestigious and select than the club of professionals with green jackets.
Golf has always been, and for the forseeable future probably always will be, seen as a rich man's game. There are a heck of a lot more baseball fields and basketball courts for kids to play on than golf courses. Plus, most golf courses are only open to club members that pay a fee to be able to play the courses, so that makes the availability of courses to the public even less likely. The Augusta National club takes the phrase "rich man's game" literally though. In order to be a member, you have to be rich, and you have to be a man. To this day, women are not permitted to become members of the Augusta National club. Women are permitted as guests, but they are not allowed to become official members.
The fact that policies like these still actually exist is ridiculous. I have been told before that the difference between living in New York and living in the deep south is bigger than most people think, and policies such as these make me believe that. Augusta ran into trouble recently though when IBM named Virginia Rometty as its new CEO in March. The CEO of IBM is usually invited to join the club, but Augusta held firm in its prehistoric stance despite Rometty being named to that position in March. However, last week Buffett became the first known Augusta National member to make a public statement opposing the club's policy. Due to that statement, Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour was asked about his stance on the policy of Augusta National club.
In the past, the PGA Tour has made it a point to distance itself from golf clubs with any sort of discriminatory policies. In 1990, the PGA Championship tournament (another one of the four major PGA tournaments held each year) was held at Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. The founder of the club, a man named Hall Thompson, answered a question about discriminatory policies of the club by giving the laughably idiotic response of, "We don't discriminate in every other area except blacks." So, after that remark, the PGA Tour has never held an event at Shoal Creek Country Club since then.
The difference between Shoal Creek Country Club and Augusta National though, and the reason that the PGA Tour can't abandon Augusta is, of course, money. Despite the policies of the club, Augusta National has about 99% of the leverage in this instance. Without The Masters, the PGA Tour loses its biggest yearly event. It would be like asking the NFL to give up holding the Super Bowl. It just simply will not happen. It's just an unfortunate truth. If I were Tim Finchem, I would have to make the same choice. Giving up The Masters is not an option. The history of the tournament, the history of the course, the tradition of the green jacket, and the revenue all of those things combine to create is simply something that the PGA Tour would be foolish to even think about giving up.
Until Tiger Woods came along and took the golf world by storm, Augusta National was reluctant to even allow black males to play at their club. However, the revenue that Woods helped generate for the club was too big for the neanderthal members to turn down. Augusta was at the mercy of a young, African-American phenom, and right now the PGA Tour is at the mercy of a club with antiquated rules and beliefs. Maybe Warren Buffett's statements could possibly start some kind of small movement toward new policies at Augusta, but if history is any judge of that, the process will be painstakingly slow. However, until that process begins, we will all have to live with the fact that there are sadly still too many people that hold on to ways of thinking that were supposed to have been eradicated a long time ago. Either that, or we will have to see The Masters tournament come to an end, and I can tell you without a doubt, that will not happen as long as the game of golf still exists.
Daily Rangers Update: Game 6 ended with the Capitals winning 2-1. The Capitals were clearly the better team on this night, and they did a good job of bouncing back from what would have been too devastating a loss in Game 5 for most teams to overcome. That means Game 7 will be Saturday night back in Madison Square Garden with one team going on and one team going home. There is zero margin for error. Let's Go Rangers!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: The only real drama last night was whether or not the Diamondbacks would be shut out. Carlos Beltran drove in 6 runs in his first two at bats, and the Diamondbacks scored a run in the 9th inning to make the final 6-1. It has been a struggle again tonight to get the offense going, as the Cardinals are leading 3-1 in the 6th inning. Something needs to happen to wake up the bats or we could be looking at a seventh loss in the last eight games. There are still four innings left though, so that is plenty of time to turn the tables and avoid being swept.
Daily Giants Update: Stacy Robinson, a former wide receiver that was a member of the 1986 and 1990 Super Bowl champion teams died of cancer earlier today at the age of 50. I honestly have never heard of him, but it's never good to hear about a former player passing away. R.I.P.
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