Women’s Masters- A Great Concept.

There is a lot of chatter on social media these days about Augusta National hosting a Women’s Masters. It got a big boost when Paula Creamer tweeted about it shortly after Jordan Spieth won the Masters and then other LPGA players backed her. Let me go on record up front and say I think the women having their own Masters Tournament is a wonderful concept, but let me also go on record as saying I think Billy Payne may have done them a favor by rejecting the proposal. They need to go find their own modern day Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts and start it from scratch and build it from the ground up for women and create a club and tradition they can be proud of.

“When they’ve only got one tournament a year there, I think the scheduling issue is kind of strange to me. There are a lot of weeks,” she said. “I understand that a lot goes into it, that one week and planning. The golf course is shut down. But I think it can handle two weeks at a time, whether it’s a week apart or back-to-back.

I have read what Paula Creamer and her supporters had to say and I have been in several social media discussions about the subject. For the most part the people supporting it are more into political correctness and equality for women than really thinking this through. Unfortunately for Chairman Billy Payne and Augusta National they have a giant bull’s-eye on their back when it comes to political correctness and gender equality and immediately become a lightning rod and an easy target when the subject comes up. There are a dozen or more men only clubs in existence today and Augusta National is not one of them, but the those clubs don’t host the Masters. There is only one “woman only” club that I can find and it is in Canada.

I realize up front that by not supporting the idea of Augusta having to piggyback another event on to the Masters, I am probably going to be labeled a chauvinist. That’s just how it works these days. Anyone that chooses to disagree, no matter how good or sound the reasoning behind it, is labeled a knuckle dragging Neanderthal. The people that know me well know that that is not true and I am a huge fan of the women’s golf and the LPGA.

Those that have given at least a little thought to this realize that it would have to be played the next week after the Masters while you still have the azaleas and dogwoods in bloom and the media is still set up. Any later is out of the question because August National is maintained like no other course. It is designed to peak in early April. They close in May because that beautiful lush green overseeded grass starts dying out then. Even Paula Creamer suggests the week after. She also uses Pinehurst hosting back to back majors as an example. I agree it is possible, even though a course hosting back to back majors has only happened once to my knowledge and I am sure there are a multitude of good reasons that it has only happened once. There is also the fact that Pinehurst No.2 is a public course and is maintained as a wasteland compared to the lush conditions at Augusta.

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Another thing is that the media even comments on the fact that there seems to be somewhat of a golf hangover right after the Masters. Nobody goes into PGA Tour Commissioner’s Tim Finchem’s office and requests that their tournament be scheduled the week after the Masters. I really don’t think that “Well folks, that wraps up the Masters for this year be sure and join us next week when the ladies are in town” is what anybody is really looking for or what women’s golf deserves.

As I said earlier, I think the women’s golf has reached a point, and is actually long past the point, where it deserves its own Masters, but in order for it to truly be an event of the same magnitude for women as it is for the men it needs to be a totally separate, stand alone event that women’s golf can be proud of.

My challenge to Paula and her supporters is to go out find the people, build the course from the ground up for women, (I personally don’t care if it’s women only) and make this a reality.

Don’t just take the easy way out and blame Billy Payne and the Augusta National membership. Let golf fans around the world continue to have their Masters that took generations to build and the members having to loan money to club in the early days to keep the tournament going and build its rich traditions. It’s a great idea and maybe the discussions will motivate someone to go out and create a full blown Women’s Masters. Women’s golf deserves it but won’t achieve it by trying to piggyback on the original.

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