Masters, but no Mistresses

Bubba won the Masters. He hugged his mum and blubbed. Wife, Angie, stayed away looking after their newly adopted child. Bubba had blazed away with a shocking pink driver, sported in aid of a cancer charity. Excellent PR all round.
Meanwhile the Masters remains what it has always been, an uncomfortable anachronism. It looks beautiful, it is unfailingly polite and it is completely out of order. The Masters defends the indefensible, or at least stonewalls the questions. Most of the media are complicit just like most golf fans - could we expect any different?
Clifford Roberts, founding father  of the Augusta National with the legendary Bobby Jones, once infamously stated with Southern pride 'As long as I live all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black'. Eventually he shot himself on the course. Nothing much changed. Lee Elder became the first black player in 1975. The first black member arrived only in 1990. The second, and possibly last, is rumoured to be that model of decency, Tiger Woods. These things are kept secret. We don't know of any more. Why because this is a private members' club and therefore it benefits from the one exemption to the Civil Rights Act which outlawed discrimination. Private members clubs can select 'who they damn well please' as members, however offensive.

Augusta National has no female members. None. Zero. It never has. Clifford Roberts would rather have burned in hell than allow that. Funny thing is that attitudes have not changed one jot since then. This week current ChairMAN Billy Payne squirmed in a press conference as he was taken to task about the men only policy of the club. He had no answers. Indeed he seemed taken aback that the usually fawning press pack was actually taking him to task. He wanted to be congratulated for the clubs' modest advancements. They are not worth mentioning here.
Why was the Press so interested? Well there was a potential story brewing. IBM, beacon of mainstream America, had appointed a female CEO, Virginia Rometty.

 So what? Well IBM are one of the main sponsors of the Masters. What usually follows is gratis lifetime membership of the club. Other important male sponsor CEO have, of course, received the 'accolade'. Cue radio silence. Rometty has not been so 'honoured'. IBM response? Zilch. What a surprise to learn that IBM Chairman Samuel Palmisano is an Augusta member.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both went on record as saying they believed that women should be allowed to be members. But that was it. No censure, no condemnation.
In Downtown Augusta there is a statue commemorating those who fought to retain slavery.
Need I say more?