Boy you can say that again. Never has something that is the classic example of what is wrong with the sport of golf, both past and present, been offered up as a paean to American golf more than the Masters Tournament. Augusta National Golf Club is not a cathedral, not a shrine, and not a temple. To me it is more like that lunch counter in Birmingham Alabama with the whites only sign, a bastion of racism. 

  Let’s start with the basics. Jackie Robinson integrated the sport of baseball in 1947. Lee Elder was the first black pro invited to the Masters in 1975, a mere 28 years later and a full 14 years after the PGA, another group with a checkered past, was forced to end its Caucasian only policy in 1961. The course was founded in 1930 by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, and it was fitting for them to want to see how the world’s best golfers could handle their new creation. So, like minstrels brought in to entertain royalty the pros would show up every year starting in 1934 for the Masters Tournament. Roberts and Jones being solid citizens of the segregated south took 41 years before a pro of color was invited. 

  The finances of the club are not disclosed. It is a for-profit corporation. The club runs a tournament which it relies on the public to fund through attendance, merchandise, and a lucrative tv contract. I wonder if the millions brought in by the tournament don’t help subsidize the dues of the members, some of the world’s richest men, and I wonder if the club is subject to the accessibility rules as any other retail establishment.  

  For the early part of my life the caddies at Augusta National were as interesting a story as the players. Some of them like Carl Jackson who caddied for Ben Crenshaw and Nathaniel Avery who caddied for Arnold Palmer became very well known. The Masters was the only tournament that required that pros use the local caddies. Clifford Roberts had declared that “The players shall be white, and the caddies shall be black.” The caddy rule was followed until 1983 when Augusta National made a controversial decision to open the caddy ranks after a tee time mix-up at the 1982 Masters and just like that the black caddies at the Masters all but disappeared. The in-house caddies were robbed of their biggest payday of the year. Discarded because they didn’t matter. 

  So, enjoy the azaleas, the pre-recorded bird calls, the patrons munching pimento cheese sandwiches but remember the history of this fine institution is nothing more than a made-up playground for rich white men. I think the great sport of golf deserves better.