It seems that Augusta National Golf Club’s male-only membership policy has suddenly become an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. Hours after President Barack Obama said that Augusta National Golf Club should admit women, leading Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his opposition to the club’s practice of excluding women from the inner sanctum.
Mitt Romney Joins Obama In Opposing Augusta National’s Male-Only Membership Policy
“Certainly if I were a member, if I could run Augusta, which isn’t likely to happen, of course I’d have women into Augusta,” Romney said Thursday, according to CNN.
Romney, who conceded his game was “not that good,” has attacked Obama for playing too much golf. But the former Massachusetts governor came down on the side of POTUS on the off-the-course debate that continued to roil even as the Masters got underway on Thursday.
The controversy had moved to the back burner over the past 10 years but gained renewed momentum after longtime Masters sponsor IBM named Virginia Rometty its chief executive earlier this year. Despite popular opinion seemingly on the side of Augusta National doing away with its discriminatory tradition, club chair Billy Payne refused Wednesday to discuss internal matters.
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