After 80 years, someone at Augusta National thought it was a good idea to invite a female to join the club. For those of you who are not familiar with the situation, Augusta National is home to the famed Masters Golf Tournament, America’s crown jewel event. If there was ever an example of bigotry, racism, sexism, opulence and the good old boys network, this is it. So secret that their list of members has never been published, but rest assured many of the names would be familiar. They control their TV rights with CBS where they have only done one-year contracts since they started to televise this event over 50 years ago. They have had announcers removed for their remarks about the gallery or the conditions of the putting greens. Yes, these cats mean business.
Now that you get the gist, these chaps have been under pressure for many years to be more diverse. After mounting public pressure the members relented and admitted an African American some 22 years ago. The heat was turned up about 10 years ago when activist Martha Burke raised a little hell, only to be brushed aside. Her campaign was to have the sponsors of the Masters boycotted. Nice try, but the Masters then said they would put the event on without sponsors. As I told you, they have that kind of juice. After Burke staged a few protest that fell on deaf ears, it was back to business for the Masters and their sponsors, as IBM and others kept printing money.
I mention IBM because until recently every CEO of IBM was invited to join Augusta National until last year when (you guessed it) a woman was named CEO. Virginia Romettey was named CEO. Uh, oh. Did I mention that she is an avid golfer as well? For some reason, the fellas did not take the bait. Instead, they went in an entirely different direction. They not only invited a female to join, they invited two, one of them former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is African-American, the other being South Carolina financier Darla Moore. What more could they have done? Tall cotton, if I must say so myself. And while it took 80 years to get it done, it is my hope that we will see an African-American winner on the LPGA while these women can still swing a golf club.
Now I wonder how many other clubs who do not allow women or African Americans will change their ways. While they have the right as a private club to admit who they want, one has to wonder if the thought has crossed the minds at some of our local exclusive clubs, like St. Louis Country Club, Old Warson and others who have elected to say no for their own “private reasons.” Yes, it’s St. Louis, and yes it will take some time.
Four-letter Rams
As the Rams are two game into their pre-season, they have shown that they can be as bad as they have been in the past few years and then again they show flashes of hope. No one has a clue what to expect when they put all the pads on, go full speed and actually hit someone when it counts.
The coaching and teaching in practice almost makes you want to utter that dreaded four-letter word … hope. Yes, hope, as the Rams and the coaching staff are trying to make some headway.
They will by far be the youngest team in the league and will pay dearly for that if there is a hiccup early in the season. The reward? A team that that will grow and grow quickly as Jeff Fisher and his coaching staff understand what the mission is.
While they are young, we are still waiting to see if there is real talent here. General Manager Less Snead has one draft under his belt, and I am not sure that with the picks he made will they all have impact early. This team has been talent-starved, so the Rams will have to lean on the vets and hope on the kids. Rams will be razor-thin on impact players, so an injury could to too many key players could create a setback.
I think the Rams will be worth keeping an eye on, and not because of what they did last week against Kansas City because the preseason makes fools and liars out of us all. I say it because of the coaching of what the coaching staff has to coach.
