John Feinstein - August 23, 2012

• By Morning Drive Team
• Aug 23, 2012 8:21 AM ET

The credit for the invitation of two female members to Augusta National Golf Club, in his opinion, mostly goes to Chairman Billy Payne but while the admission of female members has almost certainly been discussed for years, the tipping point was Payne’s tense News Conference on the Wednesday of the 2012 Masters. After that day, he believes that Payne and Augusta National were convinced that they were not going to experience a stressful situation like that ever again.

Both Rice and Moore will fit in very well as Augusta National members because they are both successful in their respective fields, are both conservative politically, and they love to play the game of golf. While this news is significant, it is not as though Rice and Moore are going to be different from the rest of the membership in terms of personality and resume. The only real difference is the fact that they are women.

At this moment, Rory McIlroy is truly the #1 player in the world and based on that fact, Tiger Woods is his chief rival and it is always exciting to see the #1 and #2 players face off. The supposed Tiger and Phil rivalry was not an actual rivalry in his opinion in large part because Tiger simply won much more often and they did not duel each other down the stretch of big tournaments or Major Championships.

While the invitation of Condoleezza Rice is significant because she is African-American, it is not as historic as many of her other accomplishments including becoming the first African-American female Secretary of State in 2005. If you want to look at truly historic moments in the history of Augusta National and The Masters, look at Lee Elder becoming the first African-American competitor in The Masters in 1975 and Tiger Woods’ victory in 1997.

David Fay deserves a great deal of credit for his role in bringing the U.S. Open to Bethpage State Park. Fay was convinced that the municipal course on Long Island could host a U.S. Open. He felt that it was very important that a U.S. Open needed to be held on a truly public golf course and he felt that Bethpage State Park in New York was the perfect location. Fay was able to convince many people who felt that Bethpage could not possibly host such a big event and both the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Open have been considered successes.