Finchem Whiffs the Discrimination Issue at Ponte Vedra Beach

A little over a month ago, I posted on Billy Payne stonewalling the press corps about the Augusta National Golf Club not admitting women as members. Recently, Warren Buffet, the investment whiz, and a member of ANGC, said that the club needs to have “plenty of women” in the membership, but as he is not on the membership committee, there isn’t anything he can do about it right now.

I wrote that the world of golf could do something about it by refusing to grant to the Masters recognition as an official tournament in World Golf Rankings, exemptions for major championships, money lists, and so on. So at a press conference held for The Players Championship, which some observers call the fifth major, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem stepped up to the plate on the very issue . . and struck out.

Oops. Wrong sports metaphor. He stepped up to the tee on the 17th tee at TPC Sawgrass . . . and whiffed.


In a May 9 NY Times article by Karen Crouse, who is becoming my favorite golf writer, Finchem said, in regard to the Tour’s strict policy of not holding tournaments at courses with discriminatory membership policies, quoting from Crouse’s article,

“We have concluded a number of times now, and we have certainly not moved off of this, that we are not going to give up the Masters as a tournament on our tour,” Finchem said Wednesday. He added, “It’s too important.”

Finchem clarified the Tour’s head-scratching position by saying, also quoting from Crouse’s article,

“We have a policy that says that when we go out and do a co-sanctioned event, we are going to play it at a club that is as open to women members, open to minority members, etc., and we follow that policy carefully,” Finchem said. In the case of Augusta National, he added, “we just elect to continue to recognize them as an official money event on the PGA Tour because we think it’s that important to golf, so we don’t get to determining whether their policies are right or wrong.”

That the Masters tournament is so “important to golf”, whatever that means, more important than the culture of non-discrimination. Got it. Tim, if discrimination is wrong at Whooping Crane Country club, it’s wrong at ANGC, too.

Apparently, the Tour follows a principled policy on discrimination unless it has to apply it in a difficult case, at which time the Tour folds. Principles aren’t for easy cases, though. They’re for the hard cases. If you retreat from your principles in the face of a tough decision, it doesn’t mean that you are unprincipled. It means that you have different principles than you thought you did. This stance shows that Finchem and the Tour do not truly believe in non-discrimination. They just want to make themselves look good by having filed the right paperwork.

What does Finchem think the ANCG would do if he held its feet to the fire? Not hold the tournament? Hardly likely, seeing that the Masters is a cash cow beyond any golf club’s wildest dreams. If the Masters was not played for a year or two, “golf” would not suffer. The club would, and Finchem has to know that.

Just watch. The subject will come up during U.S. Open week, and I’ll bet dollars to donuts that the USGA will say the same thing as Finchem. I guess I’ll have to get out the the USGA address again and ask you to write, especially if you are a USGA member, to ask that the Masters champion be removed from the list of automatic exemptions, beginning with the 2013 U.S. Open competition, until such time as it admits female members.

The USGA does not seem to have an e-mail address for general correspondence. Their mailing address is:

The United States Golf Association
P.O. Box 708
Far Hills, N.J. 07931

You may also telephone them at 908-234-2300, FAX 908-234-9687.

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