Tiger Woods' Return to Augusta a 'Slap in the Face to Women'?
Golfer plans his first shot at redemption at a club that bans women members.
March 22, 2010— -- There are good reasons Tiger Woods picked the Masters Tournament for his upcoming return to professional golf. Held at the most storied and historic home of the game in America, Augusta National was where Woods won his first major in 1997, and its long-established rules of etiquette should protect him from heckling crowds or prying questions from reporters.
But if Woods is looking to win hearts and minds as much as he is a green jacket, some women say, there is no worse place than Augusta National for him to seek redemption -- it's a club that notoriously excludes women from becoming members.
Calling Woods' decision to play at the Masters a "slap in the face to women," USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan said discrimination at the club against women is tolerated in ways it would not be if African-Americans or other minorities were similarly excluded.
"Is there something tone-deaf about this [decision]? Sure there is. But the male-dominated golf world has never really cared about the issue of discrimination against women at Augusta National," Brennan told ABC News.com. "That this is the place that Tiger Woods decides to come back with these apparently well-documented issues that he has with women is ironic at best, and, I guess you could say, a slap in the face to women at worst."
Woods will attempt to win his 15th major when the tournament opens April 8 at the Augusta, Ga., club.
Just two days after Woods announced he would end his four-month hiatus from golf in the wake of a spiraling sex scandal and allegations of marital infidelity from a raft of women, one alleged mistress Thursday leaked a series of raunchy text messages reportedly from the golfer.
In the text messages provided by former porn star Joselyn James, Woods, who said Tuesday he would continue therapy for sex addiction, allegedly suggested that he wanted to choke James and urinate on her as a form of sex.
Women's-rights groups contend that the public has an insatiable interest for all things related to Tiger and his relationships with women, except when it comes to his support of a club that maintains a decades-old policy of sexism.
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