MASTERS 23 20 years after protests, women still look ahead

News Summary

  • Golf Association.The Royal & Ancient Golf Club voted overwhelmingly in 2014 to accept women for the first time, and later removed Muirfield from the British Open rotation when the historic golf club in Scotland rejected mixed membership.Muirfield held a second vote in 2017 and changed with the times.
  • They rarely made it through an interview without being asked about it.“We were all thrown together in this women’s movement in golf,” Whaley said.Whaley played the LPGA Tour briefly, married club pro Bill Whaley, had two daughters and never lost the itch for golf.
  • What can I do to make it better for those who come behind us?”___Whaley earned her place on that Golf World cover as a high-energy Connecticut club pro who became the first woman since 1945 to qualify for a PGA Tour event.
  • It wasn’t until nine years after the protest that Augusta National announced former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore had accepted invitations to join.“We did not succeed in our goal to get the club open to women at the time,” Burk said.
  • The most noticeable — and more relevant — change is outside the club.Two years after Augusta National had its first female members, Whaley in 2014 was elected secretary of the PGA of America, a 28,000-strong organization of club professionals.
  • She also hosts three-minute podcasts called, “Equal Time with Martha Burk.” Burk, with her Texas twang, never needed a lot of time to get to her point.“How many women are at Augusta now?
By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf WriterAUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) It started with a letter that Martha Burk figured would never see the light of day.When she mentioned the allmale membership at Augusta Nationa [+8120 chars]