Palm Beach Gardens, Mar 16: One year after Martha Burk led a relentless campaign against the home of the Masters and its all-male membership, the incendiary issue that once threatened to become an inferno has all but fizzled.
``If it was as big a deal as she made it out to be, we'd still be talking about it,'' Charles Howell III said. ``We're still talking about Iraq. We're still talking about Osama bin Laden. We're still talking about the economy. We're still talking about how to play better golf.
``But I don't think anyone is talking about Martha Burk.''
In fact, no one is asking players if they are outraged that Augusta National has never had a female member. No editorials are urging Tiger Woods, himself a minority, to boycott the major championship he has won three times.
Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, has been in the news only twice this year.



One time was to demand that Fred Ridley resign his membership at Augusta National upon his election in February as president of the U.S. Golf Association. The other was to announce she would not return to the Masters to protest.


Bureau Report