US: Pressing Bipartisanismon a Macho Golf Club

Obama and Romney: It’s time to let women join.

It has also sparked a fight among two New York Times reporters.

There is an issue (perhaps the only one) that President Barack Obama and his (likely) contender Mitt Romney can agree upon. Should women be allowed into the Augusta National Golf Club, one of the last male-only enclaves remaining in the U.S.? For 80 years, by statute, there have only been men among the club’s members. In 2003, the club’s then-chairman, Hootie Johnson, responded to criticism as follows: “There may well come a day when women will be invited to join our membership but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet.”

Nevertheless, times change and we now find ourselves on the eve of an election campaign. The first one to use the rod against the macho Georgia golf club was Obama. When Obama went down to Augusta to watch the champions take to the green for the first round of the Masters Tournament, he let it be known — through the intermediary of his spokesman — that “his personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club.” Mitt Romney, the billionaire who has been winning the Republican primaries, quickly followed suit, saying, “I’m not a member of Augusta. I don’t know if I would qualify — my golf game is not that good, but certainly if I were a member and if I could run Augusta, which isn’t likely to happen, but of course I’d have women in Augusta. Sure.” On the other hand, Romney cannot afford a misstep on the gender issues that might peg him as a sexist: Among female voters, polls show him lagging 18 points behind Obama. It amounts to a “bipartisan” position that is almost obvious during an electoral campaign.

Luckily, the political correctness has been (unexpectedly) ruffled by the liberals of The New York Times and by a lady, the recently appointed CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty. She has been the first woman to lead the U.S. information technology giant, which is one of the main sponsors of the Masters. All four of her predecessors joined Augusta as honorary members.

The club’s directors have found themselves faced with a dilemma this year: Should they admit Rometty since she is the boss of IBM, or should they exclude her on the grounds that she is a woman? The club’s current president, Billy Payne, tried to get away with these words: “All issues of membership remain the private deliberations of the membership. … We especially don’t talk about them when a named candidate is part of the question.” Does it mean that the taboo is going to end and that Rometty will enter the circle of sexist golfers? It is not so obvious.

Yesterday, on the second day of the Masters, not all eyes were focused on Tiger Wood’s and Rory McIlroy’s games, but, rather, on the VIP spectators: Has Ginni arrived? She had not yet been seen by early afternoon. In the meantime, Twitter’s stream was divided over the controversy that has pitted a New York Times reporter against her superior, the managing editor of the Sports section. Karen Crouse said that she is ashamed to follow the Masters at Augusta and that, if it was up to her, she would boycott the tournament until it allowed women. Her boss, Joe Sexton, gave a hard-nosed response in an Associated Press interview, asserting that Crouse’s comments were “completely inappropriate and she has been spoken to.”

Was Sexton’s reprimand justified? Was it sexist? Some claim that Sexton has earned himself a membership card at the Augusta National Golf Club.