Hootie Johnson

[Boris]

Another poll. I love this feature.
What's your opinion on Hootie Johnson?

[HDPM]

Where's the vote for total moron? It is hard to be as incompetent as Hootie and be so sucessful. It should give us all hope that anything is possible in America.

[Clarkmeister]

Moron? He is my idol. I think what he's doing is wonderful. I find it fascinating how the media is piling on him as if he is doing something both illegal and immoral when in fact what he has done is neither.

[HDPM]

Criminal, no, stupid, yes. He could have kept women out of Augusta and saved his club millions; essentially keeping the status quo if he went about it intelligently. Instead, he has hurt his club's reputation and will be forced out as chairman if he continues. I also think that Augusta would have let women in within a year or two, so he is destroying what took years to build in a matter of weeks. The women's groups are now going to target the membership which will force change. There's no way a CEO of a major company can belong to Augusta anymore, unless the membership policy is changed. (Just watch) The next step will be to force the PGA Tour to refuse to give its members releases to play in the Masters. If Augusta persists and televises the event itself or whatever,(For more than a year or two) I think there is a 50% chance that the PGA Tour will do just that. Then the Masters will go back to being a cozy little invitational with a lot of amateurs. Just like 1938. There are many clubs out there that discriminate against women much more effectively than Augusta. But they don't have big tournaments or seek publicity like Augusta. They also probably have smarter club presidents. Hootie has handled this problem as poorly as possible. It is funny to watch.

[Tom D]

The PGA doesn't allow women, does it?

Tom D

[Boris]

What exactly is he supposed to do? He can't just decide to let women into the club on his own accord. The membership must vote. he certainly can't give in to whatever group it is that started this whole flap. At least not if he has any balls.

The Master's will get sponsorship. I think the great majority of the public could care less whether or not some elite, private golf club in Georgia allows women.

As an aside, are there even any women that want to be a member?

HDPM here, posting from another computer. PGA of America definitely allows women. I assume you mean the PGA Tour. I looked at their information regarding Q School recently as the question came up before on the forum. Nothing in the application speaks of gender. I think any woman who could meet the ability requirements (You do have to have someone certify you can play before entering I think) could apply. Women don't try because they don't play well enough to make money on the Tour. But somedaythere might be one and I do not see how the Tour could keep her out. There are many women who would meet the high standards of Augusta membership though.

HDPM here, posting from elsewhere. Plenty of women want to be members sure. Augusta is not a democracy. Members can be added or booted pursuant to their own non-democratic policy. Rest assured, Hootie could get a woman in if he so chose. What could Hootie have done? Handled the situation with some skill and this would not be a big issue. He has handled this horribly.

[Clarkmeister]

Has he handled it wrong? Probabaly, but I would postulate that he has simply skipped straight to endgame, something rather inevitable once these broads turned their eyes on him.

All I want to know is:

Why can't I get into Augusta simply cause I'm not a bajillionaire?
Why can't I get senior citizen discounts at Denny's?
Why can't I get in for no cover on "ladies night"?
Why can't I join the several hundred all ladies workout centers?
Or for that matter, the dozens of all women's country clubs?
Or join a women's collegiate volleyball team, while they can join the men's. I think I'd do better on the chick team. Really.

Yesterday a 10 year old girl died playing tackle football with boys in a league. Do the womens organizations who fought to get that girl included blame themselves for putting that girl in a spot for which she was ill equipped? No. They say that full contact is bad for children and the league should change to flag. "Let us in, wait, we die, but still want to be in, so change the entire nature of the game so we can still participate" WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!!!! THIS POOR GIRL SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN IN THAT SITUATION!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH my head is exploding!!!!!!!!!

My deepest apologies for getting severely off topic.

[Boris]

"What could Hootie have done? Handled the situation with some skill and this would not be a big issue. He has handled this horribly."

Sorry HDPM, but that's a cop-out response. You can't criticize a person with out having a better idea of what they should do. What does it mean to "handle the situation with skill"? Hootie's not the one who made this a big issue. Augusta does not want female members and that's their right. Hootie did the right thing by the Sponsors by letting them off the hook for any controversy.

I personally don't have any problems with the Augusta memebership. Apparently this women's rights group thinks that Augusta's policy promotes sexism or something. To be honest I'm not even sure why the group is so concerned about whether or not Augusta allows women. It is a private men's club. What's wrong with that?