Condi Joins Shoal Creek; Next Stop, ANGC Green Committee

First, she'll be gnawing on cigars in the Shoal Creek lounge, going all 18 with the boys and telling fart jokes. Next thing you know, Condoleeza Rice'll be up on the podium Wednesday of Masters week, clad in green, telling the assembled scribes that if we don't narrow the fairways and grow more rough the distance explosion smoking gun will come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Jaime Diaz notes the surprising news and what a nice show of progress...assuming this wasn't just a move to help Shoal Creek get back into the major championship picture. So cynical, I know. After all, Condi summers in Birmingham for all I know.

But even better, the news gives Jaime a chance to remind us it was only 19 years ago that some really backwoods good ole boys were hosting majors!

It took a good reporter, Joan Mazzolini of the Birmingham Post-Herald, to ask Thompson the right questions. With little knowledge of golf but possessing a keen eye for cultural dissonance, Mazzolini used the occasion of a major championship coming to Birmingham to embark on a story of the exclusionary practices at the city's private clubs. In her 90-minute interview with Thompson, she combined an engaging conversational style with a direct line of questioning to get forthright and ultra-revealing answers.

Mazzolini now works at the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a business reporter. "Who would have thought Condoleezza Rice and Shoal Creek?" she said upon learning the latest. "But you know, maybe I shouldn't be surprised, because I found the people in Birmingham were really affected by what happened, and really thoughtful about what it meant. And a lot of things are different. I mean, golf has Tiger Woods. And the country elected Barack Obama. I'm sure Shoal Creek changed some minds for the better."