Women’s Group to Appeal to CBS

The head of a women’s organization that urged the host of the Masters to admit its first female member said Saturday she will now target CBS and put pressure on the network to drop coverage of the most-watched golf tournament on television.

But CBS said Saturday it will broadcast the 2003 Masters as planned, despite a campaign by the National Council of Women’s Organizations. The CBS announcement came a day after the Augusta National Golf Club announced it would forgo commercial television sponsorship--a first--rather than subject sponsors IBM, Coca-Cola and Citigroup to protests.

Martha Burk, executive director of the NCWO, said she plans to appeal directly to the network, which has broadcast the Masters since 1956.

“It will be the same approach as I took with the sponsors,� she said. “I will appeal to them that they follow their corporate ... policies on discrimination. I will ask them to honor that, pointing out that their consumers, stockholders and employees would undoubtedly applaud their decision not to underwrite discrimination.�

CBS spokeswoman Leslie Anne Wade declined comment Saturday except to say that “CBS will broadcast the Masters next year.�

Burk said she was surprised by the announcement Friday by the golf club’s chairman, Hootie Johnson, to drop commercial sponsorship of the Masters. “I expected the sponsors to say they would pull out for the country club to announce the first woman member,� she said. “This I did not expect.�

She said she had spoken to two of the sponsors two weeks ago.

“They both said they were taking this very seriously,� said Burk, who added she thought the sponsors urged the club to address the issue.

None of the corporate sponsors were available Saturday. Burk’s group has about six million members from 160 organizations.

The controversy began earlier this year when Johnson was contacted by Burk, who challenged the lack of female members. Johnson took exception and fired back in public, insisting that the private club would not succumb to pressure.

Johnson said when the council urged the tournament’s corporate sponsors--who also are the television advertisers--to help them apply pressure on the club, he decided the event would be commercial free. The club’s 300 members are said to be prepared to absorb any financial losses, a source said.

The Masters, held in April, attracted about 40 million viewers last year.

Since its inception in 1934, the Masters has been played at picturesque Augusta National. Although there is no official policy that excludes women at the Georgia club, it has never had a female member. Its first African American member was admitted in 1990.

Details of the financial arrangement between the golf club and CBS have not been disclosed. But the club, paid by CBS for the right to broadcast the event, has unusual control over the 12 1/2 hours televised by CBS and the USA Network. Unlike with other sporting events, Augusta enlists sponsors on its own. The networks are permitted only four minutes of commercial air time each hour. The normal figure is 16 minutes an hour.

Sports marketing expert Dean Bonham said any negative publicity CBS may suffer would likely be overshadowed by the Masters’ huge ratings.

“The fact of the matter is that CBS is not in any way condoning the practices of this private club. They are bringing a sporting event to the masses,� said Bonham, head of the Bonham Group in Denver. “And if they do it without commercials, the golf community will appreciate it all the more. I doubt that the negative image of a club that [allegedly] discriminates against women will rub off on CBS.�