Columnist Dean Juipe: Masters now a riot waiting to happen

Dean Juipe

Friday, April 11, 2003 | 10:32 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

There once was a time when the mere mention of Augusta National elicited thoughts of magnolias, beautiful spring days and the world's most picturesque golf course.

It was regarded as a mecca. Fragrant and inspiring, it was the place to play if you could wrangle an invitation from a member, or if you could snare a gate pass for the Masters.

Even for those limited to watching the tournament on TV, the yearly glimpse of the revered golf course was intoxicating. The lavish setting, the serene backdrops and the peaceful nature of the telecast all but convinced the viewer that he, too, was immersed in a finely scented aroma.

But as of this year, there are those in America who will see Augusta National and the Masters as another sort of mecca. Yes, the course and the tournament's assets remain intact, yet for those inclined to wave a picket sign or gather in protest, this otherwise quaint area in Georgia has become the equivalent of a permanent home of the World Trade Organization.

It's attracting dissidents as well as nuts. It's a riot waiting to happen.

Got something gnawing at you? Got a beef with a perceived bully? Then you need to be at Augusta National for the Masters, where protestation suddenly is in vogue.

Thank you, Martha Burk and the National Organization of Women. Once you pointed out how visible a group could be even beyond the gates of Augusta National, anyone with an axe to grind and an inkling to file for a permit has made his way to this holy ground.

Nothing is sacred. Maybe at the next meeting of the World Trade Organization the protesters assembled outside will hit golf balls instead of scuffling with police, as they did last time in Seattle.

Have you seen who'll be lining the entrance at Augusta National this weekend? It'll be more congested than a typical afternoon beyond the fence of the U.S. Capitol.

There's Burk and NOW, of course, with their well-documented, if laborious, insurrection. In a movement that's both politically correct and immaterial, they want Augusta National to drop its ban on female members.

Someday, they'll get their wish.

But for those inclined to protest the protest and counteract Burk's efforts, the City of Augusta was forced to be accommodating. And beyond a handful of groups with an anti-Burk sentiment were several others with various gripes that needed accommodating as well.

Name your cause ... activists, pacifists, warmongers and peaceniks alike will be there.

Don't know the players competing in the Masters? Buy a program with tee times.

Don't know the protesters just beyond Magnolia Lane? Check their signs.

Burk and NOW have at least one other sympathetic group that will stand on their behalf and it's Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. But just as Burk has her antagonists who will be out in force, so, too, does Jackson.

Among the groups approved by the city to protest side by side were not only Women Against Martha Burk and The BurkStopsHere, but the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, which is led by a critic of Jackson.

Burk is legally allowed a maximum of 224 protesters at a site a third of a mile beyond Augusta National's gate, while the Rainbow Coalition gets 300. On that same 5-acre plot, the Women Against Martha Burk are entitled to 75 protesters, The BurkStopsHere can have up to 500 and the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny gets 50.

Based on the numbers alone, if a football game or a brawl breaks out, the advantage lies with the anti-Burk sect.

But plenty of potential reinforcements will be on hand, perhaps for both sides. For instance, a group supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom has a permit and might side with Burk, while GolfersforaRealCause would seem to favor the opposition.

So, too, would The New American White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, which will have 25 protesters on hand decreeing what the imperial wizard called "this equal rights stuff getting out of hand."

So the Masters is no longer simply a golf tournament, it's a rallying point. If you have a ticket you go in and politely cheer, and if you don't you stand outside and sadistically vent.

It's a transition we may not be fond of, yet it's one that's upon us.

And it's all because a woman got a bee in her bonnet as they used to say, back when the Masters was a little less of the spectacle it is today.