Condoleezza Rice, the First Member of the All-Male Augusta National Golf Club?

By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Today my golf partner and I were scheduled to place dead last—our usual finish—at our local Ladies' Opening Day tournament, but we were rained out. I took up golf for the first time two years ago, and so I read with interest fellow new golfer Condoleezza Rice's firsthand account of being in the crowd at the Masters:

We went to venues rather than follow a single golfer. The 16th tee was great because a golfer must carry the water onto a green that, if not hit perfectly, will throw the ball back into the water or into the sand. Perhaps it's a sign of my own obsession with the game now that I spent the time there plotting my own strategy for playing it. "A 5 wood—too much, might go in the bunker. A 7 wood—not enough, will go in the water." That means I don't have a club that will work.

Sounds like she needs to borrow my 6 hybrid club—I still haven't gotten the hang of it every time, but I bet it would have carried the former secretary of state's ball over the water. It's a great article—she knows what she's talking about, sports-wise. She doesn't make a point of it at all, but it's interesting to read her take on being a woman gracefully looking in on one of the last all-male bastions in America: "Clearly, the faces at Augusta are changing as America is changing. But there is a timelessness to it that is very nice. Everything runs on time at Augusta but nothing is hurried."

There aren't enough women who play golf, if you ask me, so I'm glad to see her out there. The day is coming soon when Augusta National will allow women to be members. What if they invite her to be the first?

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