Sept. 11, 2002

With pressure from several women’s groups and the media weighing down on it for several weeks, Augusta National Golf Club, site of The Masters, issued a statement today that it would welcome everyone, including “chicks, darkies and chinks” to apply for membership to the club in 2003.

“Augusta National is a very welcoming, diverse golf club,” read the statement, authored by Hootie Johnson, club chairman. “We do not have an exclusionary policy. We welcomed our first Negro to join in 1990 and today that we would like to make it clear that in 2003 all are welcome to apply for membership here – including chicks, darkies and chinks. Nothing would make our membership happier than to have some broads join our coloreds in the clubhouse.”

Johnson’s statement serves as a marked change to last week when he stated he would not be “bullied” into taking a female member. But while the statement was met positively by some women’s groups, others objected to the language. “The wording Johnson used to day is sexist, racist and bigoted. I can’t think of a single woman or minority who would want to join that club,” said Marjorie Hanson, president of the National Women’s Council.

Augusta spokesman Waylon Jeffers said that Hanson’s objections to the statement are a practice in symantics. “Chicks, Broads, Darkies, Negros – it doesn’t matter the name, the message is the same: Augusta National welcomes everyone.”