AUGUSTA, Ga. — The first rule of Augusta National membership is you don’t talk about Augusta National membership.
Consider that in 2014, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell appeared at the Masters wearing the green jacket that members must sport while on the grounds. Yet when asked whether this confirmed that he was a member, the commish just offered a smile and a “no comment.” His wife, standing next to him, laughed.
The list is secretive (maybe 300 spots). The criteria to get an invite is unknown. Same with the downstroke and monthly dues. That’s how they like it. The ultimate status symbol is not bragging about being in a club that is the ultimate status symbol.
Yet on Tuesday, Tiger Woods offered up one bit of information.
“I’m just an honorary member,” he said of Augusta National.
All former Masters champions are. You get to wear your green jacket on the premises and get to share a locker in the champions room on the second floor of the famed clubhouse. It doesn’t include full privileges here though.
A Masters champion is allowed to come and play a round when the course is available, but if he wants to bring a guest of any kind he needs to have an actual member in his foursome. Tiger came last week and brought non-champion Justin Thomas, but needed Augusta chairman Fred Ridley and member Rob Johnson to get it done.
“We had a blast,” Tiger said.
Woods wasn’t complaining or even hinting that he should be a member. Three-time champion Gary Player, now 88, has groused about it in the past, though, because he said, “Trying to find someone who can host is not easy,” since the club’s membership is scattered around the world.
“If I want to play a practice round with friends, I can’t just call the pro shop and make those arrangements,” Player told Golf.com last year.
Look, of all the indignities on earth, a rich and famous golfer not being invited to become a member of a rich and famous golf club probably ranks dead last. Somehow Gary Player has soldiered on. It’s possible Tiger doesn’t care.
There is hope for Tiger though.
As far as is publicly known, three pro golfers have become full members here, two you have heard of — Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus — and one you probably haven’t — John Harris, who played in 21 PGA Tour events and at age 71 just retired from the Champions Tour.
Palmer won the Masters four times and was the most influential golfer of his generation. Nicklaus won here six times and was the most influential golfer of his generation.
Tiger? Try five Masters and the most influential golfer of his generation. If tradition holds — and this place loves tradition — then Tiger Woods might actually get the nod to join.
It just might not be real soon.
According to press reports at the time, Palmer became a member in 1999, the year he turned 70. Nicklaus got invited a year later, when he was 61.
Woods is 48 and still competing to the level where, despite injuries, he fully expects to make his record 24th consecutive cut and isn’t ruling out winning.
So it’s a little early to worry about getting to play in the annual fall Jamboree … a sort of member-member event. Nicklaus has often paired up with Peyton Manning and the two nearly won it a few years back before Nicklaus noted, “I choked coming home.”
Normally, gaining membership to a club that hosts a PGA Tour event isn’t even something anyone considers. Nothing against, say, the TPC San Antonio, but it’s unlikely anyone who wins the Valero Texas Open is pining to join.
Augusta is different though. Almost everyone wants to belong here.
President Eisenhower was a member. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are members. Lynn Swan, Condoleeza Rice, Lou Holtz and so on are, too.
And maybe no one loves the place more than Tiger.
“It’s special,” he said Tuesday, when he discussed his first trip here as a Stanford student, his time as an amateur staying in the “Crow’s Nest” and watching Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen serve as honorary starters. There was also talk of everything from his historic rounds to the fun a few years back of playing here with his son, Charlie.
“I would like to, obviously, play a little bit more up here with him and to share the experiences,” Tiger said.
Tiger can presumably afford the seasonal minimums. He’d likely be a welcome partner in the Jamboree. His driver from his 1999 victory already sits in a case in the grille room.
Would inviting Tiger mean then maybe you have to invite Phil Mickelson and it becomes a slippery slope, like a Hall of Fame of sorts? Is the club phasing out the golfers after Nicklaus?
Who knows?
But if while watching the Masters this week you feel a pang of regret that your business and golfing life isn’t good enough to be a member at Augusta National, just know that even Tiger hasn’t gotten an invite.
Yet.
