April 7, 2003; Source: AnyoneForTee Exclusive
Martha and Hootie to go head to head over 18 holes in biggest Battle of the Sexes for 30 years?
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 AUGUSTA. On the eve of the season's first major, the Masters, an anonymous benefactor has put up a US$5 million winner takes all prize for a match play golfing showdown between women's rights campaigner Martha Burk and Augusta National Golf Club chairman Hootie Johnson.
 The match could be the biggest battle of the sexes since the famous 1973 tennis showdown between women's star Billie Jean King and businessman (and former male tennis star) Bobby Riggs. On that occasion, Riggs, aged 55, was led onto the court in a chariot pulled by women, while King entered on a litter carried by bare-chested men. But the battle of the "lobber versus the libber" went the latter's way as she thrashed Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, before a crowd of 30,472 at the Houston Astrodome and an estimated 50 million people television audience.
Insiders say the Martha v Hootie match could be even bigger.
 The US$5 million initiative to break the impasse, symbolically on the Augusta course itself, was made privately through AnyoneForTee's US Bureau at the weekend. It represents a dramatic last-minute effort to settle the bitter dispute between Burk and Johnson before the Masters begins on Thursday. We cannot reveal the sponsor's details, though we can say he or she is a golf-loving feminist. "It's time to end this thing," the sponsor told AnyoneForTee, "and this is the only way forward."
If Martha Burk wins, she will not only pocket the US$5 million but will also become the first female member of Augusta, opening the floodgates to others. However, if Johnson prevails, all protests will be called off and Burk will have to cook Johnson supper and do his ironing for a week.
 Burk, the head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, has fought a bitter year-long campaign to force the Augusta National Golf Club to accept female members, a stance that has made her simultaneously one of the most admired and reviled women in America. Johnson, the 71-year-old Augusta chairman, fuelled the feud by firing off a scathing, three-page statement to the media, defending Augusta National's traditions and rights as a private club.
 Already rules for the 18 hole showdown, set for this Wednesday April 9 if Johnson and Burk agree, have been drafted. The format will be stableford with Burk playing off a special handicap of 72 (she gave up golf after one abortive game as a teenager) to counter Johnson's 13 (he was once as low as 8). Both will play off a special neutered sex tee to avoid any claim of discrimination by Burke, while she will use woods all around the course, clubs that Johnson will not be allowed to touch. This will negate Johnson's greater length off the tee and dispel any perceptions that only a woman does the ironing.
"This could be huge," an NBC insider told AnyoneForTee. "Just imagine if they're all all-square coming down the last. Martha gets four shots, right, so she'll only need an 8 if Hootie finishes par. Imagine them both walking up the hill to the boos and cheers of the respective galleries onto the home green. The real Masters is going to be a stroll in the park in comparison, man."
 Editor's note: The first "Battle of the Sexes" was a seminal moment in women's sport and helped hugely in the campaign for better prize money for women players. Bobby Riggs (who died in 1995) was ranked as the number 1 player in the world in 1939 when he won Wimbledon, and he subsequently won three US Open championships. But he was no match for Billie-Jean King who wore him down with long rallies, while he retaliated with a combination of spins, drop shots and lobs. An accomplished showman, Riggs hyped the match by practicing in a "men's liberation" T-shirt and declaring, "If I am to be a chauvinist pig, I want to be the number one pig." Rosie Casals, a tennis colleague of King's, famously responded by calling Riggs "an old man who walks like a duck, can't see, can't hear and besides, he's an idiot."
The Hootie file
- Age: 72. Born in 1931, in Augusta, Ga. Resides in Columbia, S.C
- Nickname: Hootie, given to him when he was 5 by a friend (his real name is William)
- College: Bachelor's, University of South Carolina, '53
- Occupation: Retired in 2001 as chairman of the executive committee of Bank of America
- Family: Wife, Pierrine, married 51 years; four married daughters and 10 grandchildren
- Augusta National: Member since 1968. Served as vice president from 1975 until he became chairman in 1998
- Golf: 13 handicap; career best: 8
- Hobbies: Bird hunting
- Hootie says: "We do not intend to become a trophy in their case. There may well come a day when women will be invited to join our membership but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet."
The Martha file
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Age: 61
- Title: Head of the National Council of Women's Organizations
- Childhood: Martha grew up in Tyler, Texas, the oldest of three children and the only daughter of retail store owners
- Education: Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington
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Occupation: Political psychologist and women's equity expert; Co-founder and President of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy, a research and policy analysis organization in Washington
- Family: Twice married: Two children: Ed, now 41, and Mark, 37
- Golf game: One unsuccessful round as a teenager
- Handicap: Hootie Johnson
- Martha says: "Men look at this as only about golf. They'll say, 'What's the big deal? It's only one club.' Women see it in a much bigger frame. Women make the connection between Augusta National's power elite and the pay gap, the glass ceiling, the exclusion, the second-class-ness, if you will, that is still very, very prevalent in corporate America."
Relevant websites for and against Martha Burk's case
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