Questions on golf club's all-male members

Chairman Billy Payne repeatedly refused to address in specifics whether the club will consider changing its policy.

The issue over membership at the historic golf club resurfaced as Payne was asked this week whether new IBM chief executive Virginia Rometty will be admitted as club member. The past four male chief executives at IBM -- a longtime sponsor of the tournament -- have been Augusta members.

The pastoral site of the prestigious Grand Slam golf event is no stranger to controversy: Questions have been raised in the past about the private club's exclusion of women and other discriminatory practices. No woman has ever been admitted as a member, although women can play the course. Augusta did not admit its first African-American member until 1990.

Augusta National's male-only policy became a major issue in 2002 when Martha Burk, then the chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, wrote to then-chairman Hootie Johnson demanding that women be allowed to join. Johnson wrote back that he would not change the policy "at the point of a bayonet."

"I'm sure Rometty could show up tomorrow wearing a green jacket, but if that did happen it would not be a day late, it would be a decade late," Burk said Wednesday.

Burk, the director of the council's corporate accountability project, said "What I am amazed at is that they did not anticipate this," she said. "It's as if they woke up and said, 'Oh my, there's a female CEO of IBM. . . . It shows a disrespect for the company's own CEO if this is not resolved.' "

A person with knowledge of the corporate climate at the Masters said that Rometty is known to be hosting clients at Augusta during the tournament.

Rometty has been named to Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" for the past seven years and was at No. 7 a year ago. She started with IBM in 1981. When Payne was asked specifically about Rometty, he said: "One, we don't talk about our private deliberations. Number 2, we especially don't talk about them when they include a named candidate."

He did not elaborate on whether that meant Rometty is in fact a candidate being considered for membership. Augusta National has about 300 members but does not publish a list of members or acknowledge who is on it.

Payne was asked what he would say to his granddaughters about the club's policy.

"Once again, though expressed quite artfully, I think that's a question that deals with membership." He added, "My conversations with my granddaughters are also personal."

With AP