Masters chairman welcomes back all Tour winners, but not women

AUGUSTA, Georgia -- With Billy Payne in charge, winners of PGA Tour events will once again receive automatic invitations to The Masters.

As for women at Augusta National? Well, it's going to take more than new management to change that policy.

Payne, who joined Augusta about the time he was bringing the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta, became chairman last May and announced his first major change in his State of the Masters news conference on Wednesday.

Winners of most PGA Tour events will again qualify for the Masters, an exemption that was taken away after 1999.

That's one year too late for Chris Couch, Jeff Maggert and John Senden, three winners in 2006 who didn't make it under the current criteria.

Under the new rules, winners of events opposite the majors and World Golf Championships and of tournaments on the new autumn schedule will not get automatic invitations.

"Our goal is to have the strongest field possible," Payne said, "and these qualifications accomplish that."

If that made the players happy, women found no such satisfaction in Payne's policies.

Would he soften the stance of predecessor Hootie Johnson and allow women to become members? Payne knew the question was comng, and he dodged it.

"As I've said many times, all members and membership are subject to the private deliberations of the members, and other than that, sir, I'm simply not going to talk about it," Payne said.

Augusta is four years removed from protests led by Martha Burk, who demanded the club admit women as members or risk a boycott of TV broadcaster CBS and other Masters supporters. That effort failed, though, and brought no change.

On that and other issues, Payne stuck close to the party line at golf's most exclusive country club.

"We don't have a suggestion box," he said.