WFAA’s Dale Hansen says women don’t belong at Augusta National Golf Club

by Joanna Cattanach of Chick Talk Dallas

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Augusta will soon find out, like so many other “boys only” clubs before: Women don’t hurt the membership.

Dale Hansen

Sportscaster Dale Hansen doesn’t think women belong at the Augusta National Golf Club: “OK, I’m a male chauvinist pig, but sometimes – I’m just saying - sometimes it 'bothers' me that I have to change my 'behavior' because there are women around,” Hansen said in a recent commentary on WFAA (Channel 8).

Augusta, home of The Master’s golf tournament, recently admitted its first two females after nearly 80 years of all-male membership. (They admitted African American males in 1990.) The lucky ladies were South Carolina financier Darla Moore and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who defended Augusta’s exclusion – "These are issues for the membership” – but she rightly predicted Augusta would change its tune. “Obviously, I don’t believe that you can have racial discrimination. That is something that is not only illegal but immoral. But there are women-only associations and men-only associations, and these are things that we need to leave to people to sort out. The face of America is changing, the face of golf is changing. All of this will change,” Rice told Golf Digest magazine in June 2011.

Hansen says private clubs – especially golf clubs which have a history or racial, gender and religious discrimination – have the right to behave and admit those they choose, though he finds racial and gender discrimination “morally reprehensible” and says he is not a part of such clubs. Unfortunately, Hansen is wrong. He is a part of an exclusive club, one that has existed for decades, more exclusive than even Augusta: the good ol’ boys club. And while private clubs do have the right to do what they want, why would adding women or black people require Hansen to change his behavior? I wonder what he would say or how he would act if the chicks and colored people weren’t around? Maybe we should ask John and Gloria, huh?

Private and exclusive have always been the best barriers for bigotry, racism, and discrimination. And as Augusta will soon find out, like so many other “boys only” clubs before, women don’t hurt the membership. Perhaps Hansen wouldn’t be so opposed to the girls at Augusta if they club allowed him to play, but they won’t. Probably ever. And doesn’t that sting, Dale?

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