Whether you are aware of it or not, there is an ongoing battle right now over the most famous golf course in the world and who it allows as its members.

Augusta National, a golf club famous as much for its hosting of The Masters Championship as it is for being incredibly exclusive in who it allows as members, is being challenged by the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) to allow a woman as a member of its traditionally rich, white, male group.

The chairwoman of the NCWO, Martha Burk, started this debate with a letter to Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson, telling him to admit a woman member or suffer the consequences of losing sponsors and receiving pressure from the NCWO.

Johnson countered by paying for the whole telecast of The Masters (a broadcast that was unprecedented already for limiting itself to just four minutes of advertising per hour) and presenting it entirely commercial free. In other words, Johnson paid for the situation to go away.

Burk has since stepped it up by writing letters to CBS (the station that has become as synonymous with The Masters as Amen Corner) and the Professional Golfing Association (the group that recognizes The Masters as a “major”). Her goals are to get CBS to stop broadcasting the event and the PGA to reconsider the importance placed on the storied tournament.

The idea that CBS would stop its broadcast of the biggest tournament in all of golf is ridiculous. This was only cemented by the fact that Hootie and the rest of his obnoxiously racist and sexist friends are planning to pay for the whole event. It is hard to blame CBS, an already struggling network, for wanting to save one of its only consistent attractions.

Nor can you blame the PGA. Ever since 1997 when Tiger Woods stormed onto the scene and produced the highest ratings a golf tournament had ever seen, people have tuned in to see if he can win the most prolific golf tournament in the world again. In fact, the racist views of Johnson and other members of Augusta National only add to the ratings and the appeal of the tournament.

You could even make the argument that Augusta National is a club and they have the right to exclude whomever they want. This is most definitely true. A private club can do whatever it wants. The Ku Klux Klan, for instance, has taken advantage of the First Amendment and has been doing whatever it has wanted for 135 years.

Golf is in a great position right now. Golfers have always bragged about their exclusivity. It is a sport for rich white people who can’t play anything else. It is a game that allows those who feel threatened by minorities and women to hit the links and feel better about themselves. If this is how golf wants to be perceived, that is fine, and it will continue to be dominated by fat, white people on business meetings.

Tiger Woods, however, has opened the door, and golf has attempted to take advantage of it. The sport cannot have it both ways. Either it is excited about the mass appeal a minority brings to the game by dominating it, or it is going to hang on to every last hope of keeping women and minorities out of the clubhouse. Clearly, Johnson and friends aren’t quite ready to give up their reign.

There have been several articles claiming this isn’t the fight to be fighting. Some writers say The Masters is a beautiful tournament as it is and women should pick their battles elsewhere. I don’t necessarily disagree. If Augusta National wants to limit its membership to men, they have the right to do that. However, if golf wants to be the sport of the future, the sport that anyone can play, and a sport that reaps the benefit of having the most famous active athlete in the world, they cannot continue to survive while limiting half the population.