In what has become as much an annual rite of spring as the Masters, US lawmakers are considering a bill to remove tax breaks for expenses at male-only enclaves like Augusta National Golf Club.
US representative Carolyn Maloney introduced the bill before the US Congress with specific mention of Augusta National, host club for this week's 71st Masters, the year's first major golf championship.
"Golf courses are set up to allow fair competition between men and women. But at the Augusta National clubhouse, men have long had an unfair advantage," Maloney said.
"Men who belong to clubs like Augusta National reap financial benefits - either directly through tax deductions for business expenses or indirectly through career opportunities and board appointments - that women can't get just because they are women.
"The American taxpayer shouldn't be subsidizing discrimination. These unfair writeoffs should be driven off the golf course and out of the tax code."
Maloney was among the supporters of Martha Burk, whose protest outside of Augusta National in 2003 fizzled and brought a firm rebuke from the club's then-chairman Hootie Johnson.
Pressure upon Masters corporate sponsors by women's groups has not yet yielded a woman as a member of the club.
But there is a new man in charge at Augusta National, Johnson having been replaced by Billy Payne, the spearhead of Atlanta's successful 1996 Olympic bid.
"I urge Mr. Payne to rethink his club's policy of discrimination against 51 percent of the American people," Maloney said.
