#but also which one of them is the chairman of the club... vice chair too... this isnt some highschool club anymore they have to do paperwork

[prettyallfriends]

aikatsu academy is a college I REPEAT AIKATSU ACADEMY IS A COLLEGE

[apharine]

something,, with rose,,, and piers,,,, ahhhh

Here you go Nonnie!! Sorry it's a couple days late - between finishing up La Vie en Rose and going back to work things have been a little busy! But I really hope you enjoy this <33

Requests for headcanons/drabbles involving Chairman Rose are open!

---

“Piers, I’m sure there must be a way we can come to see eye-to-eye,” Rose says, resisting the urge to fold his arms across his chest and instead resting his hands, folded together, on the steel-gray desk in front of him.

“Bloody hell,” Piers sighs, leaning back in his chair so only two of its feet are on the ground.  Rose feels a tiny twinge of a frown creasing his eyebrows - he doesn’t love being cursed at, and he wishes Piers would approach this a little more maturely - but smooths it back down.  “Mate, there’s no way for us to compromise.  You want me to move the gym to a Power Spot.  There’s no Power Spot in Spikemuth.  I’m not leaving my city.  It’s that simple.”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it as many times as necessary, Piers,” Rose sighs.  “The Galar Pokemon League’s utilization of Power Spots is what allows us to achieve worldwide fame.  We have something here in Galar nobody else in the world has.  Power Spots and Dynamaxing is an essential part of our brand.  We have to unify behind it.”

“That’s not my brand,” Piers grunts.  “My brand is strength without gimmicks.  I’m the third strongest Trainer in all of Galar, and I don’t Dynamax my Pokemon.  Don’t you think that draws people in, people wantin’ to see what’s so great about me and my gym?  Don’t you get that my being an individual who goes against the grain is actually part of what makes people want to come to Spikemuth?”

Rose frowns, sitting back in his chair and dropping his hands from his desk, setting them on the armrests of his very plush leather executive office chair.  The fingers of one hand drum a little absently, a little in irritation on one armrest.

“If all our Gym Leaders acted the way you do - as an individual, setting their own needs above the needs of Galar - we’d have no unity behind the Gym Challenge whatsoever,” Rose says.

“Everyone else can’t act the way I do, though,” Piers grins, “because they don’t have my talent.  Not on the battlefield and not on the stage, either.”

Right.  The stage - which is arguably Piers’ first love, even above and beyond battling.  Of course he’s unwilling to move his gym; it’s also his concert venue, and his music is known internationally for being the thing to put Spikemuth on the map.

Rose begins feeling like he’s fighting a losing battle, which isn’t a feeling Rose is very used to having.  It’s almost a little welcome, though, if he’s honest with himself.

“Look,” Piers says, setting the front two legs of his chair back down on the ground with a thump.  “You haven’t been out to my Gym in literally forever.  Actually, you haven’t even set foot in Spikemuth as a whole in for-fucking-ever,” he adds, more than a little accusingly.  Rose feels the frown in his brow come back.  “Come see me battle and put on a concert sometime.  I’m sure I can convince you that we don’t need a Power Spot to draw in huge crowds and huge fans.  And I’m sure I can show you how badly Spikemuth needs help, too.”

Rose sucks in a breath.  The idea is tempting.

“Ms. Oleana?”  He asks, turning to his Vice President-slash-personal-assistant, who hovers over his right shoulder.  “When’s the earliest I could make it out to Spikemuth for Piers?”  The man is a pain in the ass, but Rose stands by his earlier words - the two of them need to find a way to compromise.  As Chairman, he absolutely can just order the Spikemuth Gym be up and moved.  But if he’s honest, he likes Piers - likes his individuality, likes his style, his confidence in himself.

It reminds him of himself, when he started Macro Cosmos.  Except, he thinks, he was quite a bit more…refined.  Not that that matters - not really.  Talent and skill should always recognize talent and skill where it’s seen, in whatever form it comes in.

“I’m putting on a show next Saturday, and taking on another round of Gym Challengers,” Piers offers, looking tentatively hopeful, but still guarded.

“You have two fundraisers that day and then have to travel 4 hours to prepare for a conference with some Unovan executives,” Oleana informs Rose, scrolling through his calendar on her phone.

“All right,” Piers breathes, clearly trying to stay patient.  “How about the Friday after that?”

“Opening ceremony of the Gym Challenge,” Oleana quips.

“Are you not going to that?”  Rose asks Piers sharply, but he declines to respond.

“Tell you what, how ‘bout instead of havin’ me throw dates out there, I just let you tell me when’s the earliest you’re free.”

Rose is tempted to say that’s what he had originally asked Oleana to do, but he stays quiet.

“Mr. Rose would be free on a Saturday evening…eight weeks from now,” Oleana says after a few precise swipes.

“What the fuck,” Piers says flatly.

“Believe it or not, Piers, it’s not easy being me,” Rose sighs, and for a moment, he feels tired - tired to his very bones, older than he really is.

“Join the fuckin’ club,” Piers retorts.  Rose shakes the tired feeling off at his words; he knows that Piers isn’t going to be one to have much sympathy for him, not when Piers feels as if Spikemuth’s plight is the most important thing in the world.  But it’s not; the impending energy crisis is.

Though it’s not as if Rose can exactly just tell Piers that, though again, he wishes he could.  He wishes, for a brief, sharp moment, that he could find sympathy, care, in another human being - any human.

When the silence stretches on, Piers huffs.

“Fine, eight weeks from now, Saturday,” he agrees.  “Doors are at 7PM.  I’ll make sure you have a backstage pass so you can visit the star of the show before and after, if you’re so inclined.”

“That’s very generous of you, Piers,” Rose is saying, but Piers is already standing from his seat.  He turns from Rose with a quick wave of his hand.

“Later, Chairman, Oleana,” he says, moving towards the elevator.

Rose sighs and runs one hand along his long curl of hair.

“Sir?”  Oleana is saying.  “Shall I put that on your schedule?”

“Yes, please, Ms. Oleana.”

[madstars-festival]

DON’T MISS AD STARS’ FREE ONLINE FESTIVAL ON AUGUST 25-27

We have lined up an inspiring line up of leading-edge speakers for the AD STARS 2021 Online Festival, which runs from August 25 to 27 and is free to attend. We hope you can join us! 

Featuring some of the world’s most renowned agencies and marketers, the program also features visionary innovators from Universal Everything, Neolix, Ispace Inc, DesignedByUs.org and more.

“We are immensely proud of this year’s program, which is inspired by the theme ‘Shift’. To succeed, today’s marketers and creators will need to radically shift how they think and learn new skills along the way. To help you on this journey, we have invited a wide range of experts to present at AD STARS 2021,” explains Hwanjin Choi, Chair of AD STARS.

“You’ll learn about space marketing, the metaverse, the future of virtual humans and new marketing techniques. You will learn how to connect with post-COVID consumers, how to create digital experiences that are alive, empathetic and joyful, and how to help your clients do business in a more responsible, sustainable way.”  

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Joanna Peña-Bickley, Head of Research & Design at Alexa Devices at Amazon / CEO & Design Fellow at DesignedByUs.org: “Creativity 2030 – AI Powered Culture of Creativity” (August 25th, 11:00 – 11:30am KST) This session will explore the fundamental shift from services performed by humans to algorithms empowering individual creators and makers. “I share this not to scare you that the robots are coming for your jobs – I share this because we are at an inflection point where we the creators can work smarter and offer even more creativity to help our communities, companies and planet with the assistance of AI using Cognitive Experience Design.”

Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Mastercard: “Quantum Marketing: Classical Rules No Longer Apply” (August 26, 11:00am – 11:25am KST) In this ground-breaking presentation, CMO of Mastercard and author of Wall Street Journal Best-Seller ‘Quantum Marketing’, Raja Rajamannar will unveil new rules and thinking to drive marketing leadership, business growth, and customer satisfaction for the future. This unconventional session will share the secrets to enable your marketing to make the quantum leap.

CONVERSATIONS

Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club for Creativity and Sangsoo Chong, Vice Chairman of the AD STARS Executive Committee will discuss “The Future of Award Shows”. (August 26, 11:25am – 12pm KST)

Laura Swinton, Editor-in-Chief at Little Black Book will talk to Badong Abesamis, Co-CCO at GIGL and Nkgabiseng Motau, Co-founder & CCO at Think Creative Africa to find out: “Is the Rise of Purposeful Branding Making Ads Less Funny?” (August 27, 11 – 11:30am KST)

TALKS & WEBINARS

Emma Chiu, Global Director, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence: “Into the Metaverse: Digital Trends Shaping the Future” (August 25, 11:30am – 12:00 KST) 

This presentation will explore 10 digital trends that are redefining the virtual realm. From digital twins and virtual ownership to designing and collaborating within interconnected worlds, the metaverse is creating a digitally infused world that all brands, marketers and individuals must embrace to stay ahead and remain relevant.

Joel Gethin Lewis, Creative Director, Interactive Arts, Universal Everything: “Techno Optimism: Human Centred Experiences for Troubles Times” (August 25, 4:00 – 4:30pm KST) Using emerging technology and drawing on universal themes of human interest, it’s possible to create digital experiences for all canvases which feel more alive, empathetic and joyful than ever. Learn how to harness new technology to create products and experiences which aren’t just effective – they reconnect, delight and inspire us too.

MeeYee Foong, Creative Director and Buboy Paguio, Technical Creative Director at AKQA: “From Imagination to Realization” (August 26, 1:30pm – 2pm KST) Take a look behind the curtain as to how AKQA Shanghai has reinvented its production and creative processes. The creative duo will present a number of recent projects they've collaborated on, brought to life by leveraging new technologies and talent.  

Pippa Seichrist, CEO, Miami AD School: “How Agency & School Partnerships are Essential” (August 26, 3pm – 3:30pm KST) Miami AD School partners with agencies and brands all over the world to provide its students with a global perspective. In exchange, agencies get the first look at the most promising new talent. In this session, Seichrist will reveal what companies can do to make their juniors more creative, more dedicated and more inspired to do the work.

Sosuke Koyama, Chief Transformation Officer and Rish Gopal, Social Media Director at Beacon Tokyo / Publicis Groupe Japan: “Truth in Advertising… In a Platform World” (August 26, 4pm – 4:30pm KST) Platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter have successfully democratized personalized communications at scale, but they have also unleashed a tidal wave of misinformation. Let’s come together and discuss what role advertising should play as the world begins to slide back into an age where we have to fight for concepts like truth and the enlightenment, as opposed to take them for granted.

Tim Lindsay, Chairman, D&AD: “Advertising in Europe after the coronavirus pandemic” (August 26, 4:30pm – 5pm KST) How should advertising change, post-pandemic? One instinct that most of us have is that it would be wrong to simply revert to our old way of living – particularly in the developed world – when and if we're able to. The climate emergency makes that an imperative. How can advertising contribute to a more thoughtful, responsible and sustainable way of helping our clients do business? What are our responsibilities?

Guan Hin Tay, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Singapore: “Imperfect Beauty: Brands Need Imperfect Human Stories That Are Authentic, Making Them Worthy of Consumer's Attention and Trust”” (August 26, 5pm – 5:30pm KST) Should stories always attempt to be perfect? Of course, stories without context or purpose are meaningless. But, on the other hand, stories mustn't shy away from the ugly truth. What if some content is meant to be ugly for a reason?

Josy Paul, Chairman, BBDO India: “The Rising Power of Emotional Data” (August 27, 1:30 – 2pm) This presentation is all about understanding the hidden power of emotional data: data that is rooted in human confessions, not just insights; data that goes to the 'the ocean floor of ourselves'. When we uncover it, society responds and the brand prospers.

AD STARS’ three-day program will also feature: • Soowon Lee, CEO, TBWA\Korea: “50+, Watch SMART Seniors”, a session about marketing to Korea’s fast-growing over 50s   • Laura Paz, Head of Digital Content, FCB Mexico: “The Road to Content Design into New Media (UX+CD)” • Zetu Damane, Chief Strategic Officer, Think Creative Africa: “Shift: How Has Covid Shifted Societal Values and Culture – An African Perspective” • Hyunchang Roh, Digital Campaign Director, Cheil Worldwide: “Good Old Days? Now on Digital” • Taro Asazuma, HAKUTO-R Brand Manager, Ispace Inc. and Kae Masuhara, Senior Solution Director at Dentsu: “Space Marketing in the New Era of the Commercial Space Industry” – a session exploring Dentsu’s space marketing program, co-developed with Ispace Inc • Jinsoo Kim, Campaign Director, Sidus studio X: “Virtual Human: The Future and Technological Bias” • Kristy Hu, Director of Solutions, Neolix: “Autonomous Driving Vehicle as Mobile Service Platforms in Commercialization” • Marc Wesseling, Co-Founder and CEO, UltraSuperNew: “Why Creativity is Our Most Precious Commodity in the Digital Age” • Julie Kang, CEO, Serviceplan Korea: “Transformative Power of Über Creativity” • Victoria Sunmie Lhie, Senior Executive Director, KPR, and President, cohands: “Emerging Threats to Brands: Hatred and Labelling” • Younghyuk Ko, Managing Director, Treasure Data Korea: “Limitation and Opportunity of Digital AD from Customer Journey Perspective” • Yukio Saegusa, CDO & CIO, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd.: “Data is the New Oil: Oil & Gas Company Challenges to Data-Driven Business Transformation” • Dissara Udomdej, CEO, Yell Advertising: “A Digital Mindset for Creative Work”

To watch AD STARS 2021 online, visit adstars.org from August 25-27. All sessions will be available to watch on demand for 60 days until late October 2021.

[lowvillegolfclub]

What's It Like To Be A Member?

Washington Road could be just about anywhere in small-town America. It is a bustling eyesore-lined thoroughfare with cheap chain restaurants and bargain retail stores. And while this gaudy strip shouts with a working-class accent, whispering in more genteel tones, behind the sign off Washington Road that reads "Augusta National Golf Club Members Only," is a peaceful enclave for powerful men. And behind the mystique spawned by the secrecy that surrounds the club is a place of surprising simplicity. It is a haven where important men go to be regular guys and escape in the joys of golf and companionship.

"We don't have anything in here you can't put your feet up on," says an Augusta National member, skirting the club's no-talk policy by speaking under the condition of anonymity. That accurately describes the comfortable atmosphere of the clubhouse, the original part of which was built in 1854 as the home of Dennis Redmond, who ran the land as an indigo plantation. The floorboards creak with age and seem to speak of a bygone era. While time hasn't stopped at Augusta National, it certainly moves at its own casual pace. And casual is the operative word. The clubhouse and the 10 cabins on the grounds have an easy décor that suggests a summer getaway place rather than a stuffy citified club.

"We are not a museum," William W. (Hootie) Johnson told Golf Digest in a recent exclusive interview (as chairman he is the one Augusta National member allowed to speak publicly about club policy). "I don't say that to be cute. The golf course has constantly been improved by Bobby Jones and Mr. [co-founder Clifford] Roberts and on up through the years."

Behind the gates

At the guardhouse on Washington Road, security personnel know the members by sight, and guests are held until a member comes to collect them. Members are allowed as many as four guests at a time, depending on the time of the year, and guests can play without a member, as long as the member is on the property while his guests are playing. No guests are allowed during the four big member-only events each year.

About 330 yards and 61 magnolia trees off Washington Road and down Magnolia Lane is the front door to the clubhouse, a building that was saved from destruction 70 years ago by the club's early financial problems during the Great Depression (if they'd had the money, they'd have built a new clubhouse). Inside the door, stored beneath the counter at the switchboard, is a humidor with an excellent cigar collection known only to the members. The best go for less than $10. Unlike at many clubs, things are not overpriced at Augusta.

In the downstairs Trophy Room dinner is eaten under portraits of Jones, Roberts and U.S. President Eisenhower, a club member. A set of clubs used by Jones and the ball Gene Sarazen struck when he made his double eagle in the 1935 Masters are on display.

There is some lodging for members just off the Trophy Room. Upstairs, the Library is where card games are played and stories told and re-told. The room is not loud with money but rather quiet with charm. The Champions Locker Room, where Tiger Woods shares a locker with Jackie Burke Jr., is just off the library, as is the recently renovated Grill Room and the Members' Locker Room, complete with masseuse. Among the art in the Library is the first watercolor sketch of the course by architect Alister Mackenzie and a portrait of Roberts painted by Eisenhower.

Up a near-vertical flight of stairs, in a room with windows on all four sides that would be called a widow's walk if only there were an ocean nearby, is the Crow's Nest, the first on-site housing at the club. Originally a dormitory that slept six, it now has a sitting room, a bathroom and four enclosed rooms sleeping a total of five. This is where amateur contestants in the Masters stay, and it is still used by visiting members and guests.

Although Augusta National boasts a world-class wine cellar and high-quality food, the dining-room menu speaks to the relaxed atmosphere of the place. Only the soups vary daily. Otherwise, the choices include steak, broiled fish ("with no fancy sauces on it," a regular diner says), fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, squash and corn bread. There is shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and ice cream or a delicious peach cobbler for dessert. French fries are not served, because Roberts thought they were unhealthy.

"I think it is very comfortable, but understated," Johnson says of the clubhouse. "We try to make everyone who comes to Augusta National feel at home, whether they are members or guests."

Part of the comfort is the staff. Although the paternalistic manner in which Roberts viewed the almost exclusively black workforce can be regarded as condescending, it produced a loyalty that not only resulted in very little turnover but created multigeneration employees. The son of Eisenhower's regular caddie, Cemetery, is a caddie at Augusta today. Frank Carpenter, who recently retired, worked at Augusta for more than 50 years, starting as a waiter and ending up as the wine steward and reputedly a first-class wine buyer. The longtime chef, the late James Clark, was an active participant in the Closing Party every year. No tipping is allowed, but Roberts was known to intervene if a caddie was underpaid and always told guests to "pay what you think he was worth," which almost always ensured a healthy remuneration. "We have just unbelievably dedicated people who work here," Johnson says. "And I think that is the first thing that stands out when people come here, and that includes members. Every time we come, I think we are impressed with our service and with our people and with their dedication."

Between the clubhouse and the first tee is the massive live oak under which the most powerful people in golf gather to chat during Masters week. Winding through the tree and around the clubhouse is a gnarled Chinese wisteria vine brought to the grounds when the pre-club owners, the Berckmans family, ran the estate as a nursery. The vine is said to be the parent of all such wisteria in America.

Off to the left as you gaze at the course from the clubhouse is the 10th tee, and to the left of that is the Eisenhower Cabin, one of seven cottages that form a semicircle between the 10th hole and the Par-3 Course. While the term "cabin" is an understatement, the interior is astonishing in its simplicity. Again, the furniture is much like you would gather for a casual summer hideaway, except here the simple wood dressers have had landscape scenes painted on them by Eisenhower. On the wall is a series of photos taken by Mamie Eisenhower of the various places she and her husband lived: There is Fort Benning in Georgia; Morningside Drive in New York City, from when Ike was president of Columbia University; and, stuck quietly among the other residences, is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the White House.

No ordinary golf club

The National is different from most other golf clubs in more than just its membership. First, it is closed all summer, from the third week of May until mid-October, primarily for renovations. Also, you don't apply to join, you are invited (making it known you are interested in being a member is a surefire way not to be invited). A new member finds out he has been asked to join when a letter arrives in the mail. And legend has it that a member who falls out of favor will find out about it when a bill doesn't arrive in late summer, although one Augusta insider says he can't remember the last time that happened.

The club operates under the firm hand of the chairman, a classic benevolent-dictator system created by Roberts. There have been only five chairmen in the club's 70-year history. Advising the chairman is the board of governors. Among the key insiders are Joe Ford, the vice chairman; Will Nicholson, the chairman of the competition committees for the Masters; Billy Payne, the chairman of the media committee; and Charley Yates, the 1938 British Amateur champion, close friend of Bob Jones and the only current member who joined before World War II. Club rules are not so much written as they are hints, and those who don't get the hint get the boot. The code word is "favorably." High-stakes gambling, for example, is not looked upon favorably.

In 1937, Roberts decided members should wear green jackets during Masters week so patrons could easily identify them if they had any questions. Beginning in 1949, the Masters champion, too, received a green jacket. Each member gets one jacket, for which he is billed a small fee. Members are not allowed to take the jacket from the grounds. A Masters winner is an honorary member and may take the coat off the premises the year he is champion. When a member arrives at the club, he finds the jacket hanging in his closet. If it begins to get threadbare or if a button comes loose, a sharp-eyed employee spots the defect and has it fixed.

"Despite the secrecy surrounding the club, there are no mysterious rituals shared by the members," says one insider. "Instead of a secret handshake you're more likely to get a slap on the back."

Augusta National is more about power than it is about money. It is not what you can afford but who you know, and how you act. The initiation fee is in the "low five figures," according to one source, and a member adds, "You could afford it," knowing full well he was speaking to someone making a journalist's salary. The annual dues, two insiders say, amount to "a few thousand dollars," and it costs about $100 a night to stay in one of the 105 beds that are on site.

According to Johnson, a typical weekend might have as few as 20 or 30 people playing golf, or as many as 80. Some members may come to the club only three to five times a year, and others might come 15 or 20 times. It is a close-knit group that resembles in many ways a college fraternity. Members volunteer to chair the 24 committees needed to put on the Masters, and dozens of other members chip in to help on those committees. Former Sen. Sam Nunn is on the media committee.

There is no member-guest tournament, but there are four big member-only social events a year (no guests or wives allowed) that are spirited competitions: the Opening Party in October, the Governors Party in November, the Jamboree in late March and the Closing Party the third week of May. At the last Governors Party, 130 of the 300 members showed up. After the competitive rounds, some members move inside for a drink and cigar and maybe some cards. Others head back out and squeeze in another 18 holes. Except for one day at the Jamboree when two-man teams compete, the competitions are four-man best ball with adjustments for pars and birdies, according to Augusta's unique handicap system. (The course has no Slope Rating -- instead, two points are awarded for birdies or better, one for pars, everything else counts for nothing, and a handicap is derived by deducting the total number of points from 18.)

"At the time of the Jamboree our scoreboards [for the Masters] are up," Johnson says, laughing. "It might be Johnson-Chapman, that's my partner [Hugh Chapman], or it might be Stephens-Johnson -- Jack Stephens and I won twice. It's as exciting as heck. You see your name up on the scoreboard with your partner's, then if you start stumbling around your names come off the board and somebody else goes up. You have eight or 10 leaders up there. If you win that, you receive a silver box with every attendee's name engraved on it."

These are some of the most powerful men in America, yet they are thrilled by receiving a silver box they could easily buy -- because they won it on the golf course.

"Everybody plays a nassau," says another member, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, in describing the competition at the fall Governors Party. "If you win $75, you had a helluva great day. If you lose $75, you had a horrible day. And if you break even, you're lucky."

What would Mr. Roberts do?

When Cliff Roberts ran the place, the Jamboree was not only a time to celebrate the club but was also a time to poke fun at his own autocratic rule. Each year he would show a short movie at the party. One time he depicted himself making a hole-in-one on No. 16 and then walking on water from the tee to the green, a feat pulled off by the construction of a bridge just under the surface of the pond. To add to the effect, his caddie was shown tumbling into the water. Another time, the movie had a bear chasing golfers across the course. Then the camera pulled in for a close-up of the bear -- the head was lifted off to reveal Roberts. Several times Roberts showed himself singing to a rubber duck.

"There is still a six- to eight-minute movie shown at the Jamboree with a mix of a little comedy, golf course beauty shots and sentiment," says someone who spends a lot of time inside the gates of Augusta. "There might be a piece on a member who recently passed away." Perhaps this year there will be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the membership confrontation with Martha Burk.

Although the legend of Jones is at the heart of Augusta, the essence of Roberts is its soul. The single-minded efficiency -- some would say arrogance -- with which Roberts ran the club as chairman from 1934 to 1976 established a road map for other chairmen to follow. Ask an Augusta member about a club policy, and the answer is likely to begin with the words: "Well, Mr. Roberts felt ... " Though Jones is listed as president in perpetuity, it is, in fact, Roberts who still rules.

"I'll tell you, he had a great sense of humor," Johnson says. "He'd kind of let you know what he was thinking without being too harsh sometimes. When shorts first came in on the golf course, men wearing shorts, Mr. Roberts was having lunch when Charley Yates bounded up with his shorts on. Mr. Roberts looked at him and said, 'Charley, what are you doing this afternoon?' And he said, 'Well, I'm going to play golf, Cliff, of course.' And Mr. Roberts said, 'Well, I hope the course is nearby.' It didn't take Charley long to change the shorts."

So what would happen if a member showed up now wearing shorts?

"We wouldn't look too favorably on it," Johnson says with a chuckle. "It's all right for ladies to have down-to-the-knee shorts. But men, we don't look too favorably on that."

When Johnson, 72, speaks of Augusta National, it is with a genuine affection. He first set foot on the grounds shortly after World War II, first played there 50 years ago and became a member, at the suggestion of Roberts, in 1968. Time and again as he shares stories about the club his sentences are punctuated with laughter or interrupted by wistful pauses as if a particular fond memory is replaying in his mind.

"The Closing Party is a great party," Johnson says. "We have a barbecue down by the Par-3 [Course], and we hit balls to the first green down there and all walk around with our drinks and our chef, James Clark, he'd get into it with us. He usually ended up winning the money. I only say those things," Johnson says, pausing to collect the words he wanted to use. "It's just a ... " Again he stops and laughs a private laugh as if remembering a story or a long-ago incident.

"There is a great camaraderie among the membership," he says finally.

"One of the greatest things I see is when two members, who likely haven't seen each other in several months, meet on the practice tee," says one who has been there to witness such reunions. "It's like two old college buddies meeting for alumni weekend. It's just good guys who like golf and each other's company."

Because of the difficulty of getting to Augusta (the town is almost a three-hour drive from Atlanta -- many arrive by private jet and fly into Augusta's tiny airport), members begin arriving on a Wednesday night for the big parties. It is those intimate gatherings when people are trickling in that Johnson remembers with the greatest fondness.

"There might be just 25 or 30 people, and we have a great get-together up there [in the Library]," he says. "And it's just an intimate place, a warm place. Most of the time we go to bed at a reasonable hour, but every now and then we might be up a little while."

The club frowns upon lights being on after midnight (the New Year's Eve countdown takes place at 10:30). But there are some nights when the rules are bent just a little. Especially when one of those sharing stories and playing bridge or gin rummy is the chairman, who most likely is beginning a yarn with the words, "I remember the time Mr. Roberts ... "

Washington Road is just a short par 4 away, but the harsh lights and honking horns don't make it far enough past the gates of Augusta National Golf Club to reach the clubhouse. Getting past that gate is a privilege reserved for 300 members escaping the demands of one world for the pleasures of another -- and for the chosen few they bring in with them.

[elmiragc]

What's It Like To Be A Member?

Washington Road could be just about anywhere in small-town America. It is a bustling eyesore-lined thoroughfare with cheap chain restaurants and bargain retail stores. And while this gaudy strip shouts with a working-class accent, whispering in more genteel tones, behind the sign off Washington Road that reads "Augusta National Golf Club Members Only," is a peaceful enclave for powerful men. And behind the mystique spawned by the secrecy that surrounds the club is a place of surprising simplicity. It is a haven where important men go to be regular guys and escape in the joys of golf and companionship.

"We don't have anything in here you can't put your feet up on," says an Augusta National member, skirting the club's no-talk policy by speaking under the condition of anonymity. That accurately describes the comfortable atmosphere of the clubhouse, the original part of which was built in 1854 as the home of Dennis Redmond, who ran the land as an indigo plantation. The floorboards creak with age and seem to speak of a bygone era. While time hasn't stopped at Augusta National, it certainly moves at its own casual pace. And casual is the operative word. The clubhouse and the 10 cabins on the grounds have an easy décor that suggests a summer getaway place rather than a stuffy citified club.

"We are not a museum," William W. (Hootie) Johnson told Golf Digest in a recent exclusive interview (as chairman he is the one Augusta National member allowed to speak publicly about club policy). "I don't say that to be cute. The golf course has constantly been improved by Bobby Jones and Mr. [co-founder Clifford] Roberts and on up through the years."

Behind the gates

At the guardhouse on Washington Road, security personnel know the members by sight, and guests are held until a member comes to collect them. Members are allowed as many as four guests at a time, depending on the time of the year, and guests can play without a member, as long as the member is on the property while his guests are playing. No guests are allowed during the four big member-only events each year.

About 330 yards and 61 magnolia trees off Washington Road and down Magnolia Lane is the front door to the clubhouse, a building that was saved from destruction 70 years ago by the club's early financial problems during the Great Depression (if they'd had the money, they'd have built a new clubhouse). Inside the door, stored beneath the counter at the switchboard, is a humidor with an excellent cigar collection known only to the members. The best go for less than $10. Unlike at many clubs, things are not overpriced at Augusta.

In the downstairs Trophy Room dinner is eaten under portraits of Jones, Roberts and U.S. President Eisenhower, a club member. A set of clubs used by Jones and the ball Gene Sarazen struck when he made his double eagle in the 1935 Masters are on display.

There is some lodging for members just off the Trophy Room. Upstairs, the Library is where card games are played and stories told and re-told. The room is not loud with money but rather quiet with charm. The Champions Locker Room, where Tiger Woods shares a locker with Jackie Burke Jr., is just off the library, as is the recently renovated Grill Room and the Members' Locker Room, complete with masseuse. Among the art in the Library is the first watercolor sketch of the course by architect Alister Mackenzie and a portrait of Roberts painted by Eisenhower.

Up a near-vertical flight of stairs, in a room with windows on all four sides that would be called a widow's walk if only there were an ocean nearby, is the Crow's Nest, the first on-site housing at the club. Originally a dormitory that slept six, it now has a sitting room, a bathroom and four enclosed rooms sleeping a total of five. This is where amateur contestants in the Masters stay, and it is still used by visiting members and guests.

Although Augusta National boasts a world-class wine cellar and high-quality food, the dining-room menu speaks to the relaxed atmosphere of the place. Only the soups vary daily. Otherwise, the choices include steak, broiled fish ("with no fancy sauces on it," a regular diner says), fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, squash and corn bread. There is shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and ice cream or a delicious peach cobbler for dessert. French fries are not served, because Roberts thought they were unhealthy.

"I think it is very comfortable, but understated," Johnson says of the clubhouse. "We try to make everyone who comes to Augusta National feel at home, whether they are members or guests."

Part of the comfort is the staff. Although the paternalistic manner in which Roberts viewed the almost exclusively black workforce can be regarded as condescending, it produced a loyalty that not only resulted in very little turnover but created multigeneration employees. The son of Eisenhower's regular caddie, Cemetery, is a caddie at Augusta today. Frank Carpenter, who recently retired, worked at Augusta for more than 50 years, starting as a waiter and ending up as the wine steward and reputedly a first-class wine buyer. The longtime chef, the late James Clark, was an active participant in the Closing Party every year. No tipping is allowed, but Roberts was known to intervene if a caddie was underpaid and always told guests to "pay what you think he was worth," which almost always ensured a healthy remuneration. "We have just unbelievably dedicated people who work here," Johnson says. "And I think that is the first thing that stands out when people come here, and that includes members. Every time we come, I think we are impressed with our service and with our people and with their dedication."

Between the clubhouse and the first tee is the massive live oak under which the most powerful people in golf gather to chat during Masters week. Winding through the tree and around the clubhouse is a gnarled Chinese wisteria vine brought to the grounds when the pre-club owners, the Berckmans family, ran the estate as a nursery. The vine is said to be the parent of all such wisteria in America.

Off to the left as you gaze at the course from the clubhouse is the 10th tee, and to the left of that is the Eisenhower Cabin, one of seven cottages that form a semicircle between the 10th hole and the Par-3 Course. While the term "cabin" is an understatement, the interior is astonishing in its simplicity. Again, the furniture is much like you would gather for a casual summer hideaway, except here the simple wood dressers have had landscape scenes painted on them by Eisenhower. On the wall is a series of photos taken by Mamie Eisenhower of the various places she and her husband lived: There is Fort Benning in Georgia; Morningside Drive in New York City, from when Ike was president of Columbia University; and, stuck quietly among the other residences, is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the White House.

No ordinary golf club

The National is different from most other golf clubs in more than just its membership. First, it is closed all summer, from the third week of May until mid-October, primarily for renovations. Also, you don't apply to join, you are invited (making it known you are interested in being a member is a surefire way not to be invited). A new member finds out he has been asked to join when a letter arrives in the mail. And legend has it that a member who falls out of favor will find out about it when a bill doesn't arrive in late summer, although one Augusta insider says he can't remember the last time that happened.

The club operates under the firm hand of the chairman, a classic benevolent-dictator system created by Roberts. There have been only five chairmen in the club's 70-year history. Advising the chairman is the board of governors. Among the key insiders are Joe Ford, the vice chairman; Will Nicholson, the chairman of the competition committees for the Masters; Billy Payne, the chairman of the media committee; and Charley Yates, the 1938 British Amateur champion, close friend of Bob Jones and the only current member who joined before World War II. Club rules are not so much written as they are hints, and those who don't get the hint get the boot. The code word is "favorably." High-stakes gambling, for example, is not looked upon favorably.

In 1937, Roberts decided members should wear green jackets during Masters week so patrons could easily identify them if they had any questions. Beginning in 1949, the Masters champion, too, received a green jacket. Each member gets one jacket, for which he is billed a small fee. Members are not allowed to take the jacket from the grounds. A Masters winner is an honorary member and may take the coat off the premises the year he is champion. When a member arrives at the club, he finds the jacket hanging in his closet. If it begins to get threadbare or if a button comes loose, a sharp-eyed employee spots the defect and has it fixed.

"Despite the secrecy surrounding the club, there are no mysterious rituals shared by the members," says one insider. "Instead of a secret handshake you're more likely to get a slap on the back."

Augusta National is more about power than it is about money. It is not what you can afford but who you know, and how you act. The initiation fee is in the "low five figures," according to one source, and a member adds, "You could afford it," knowing full well he was speaking to someone making a journalist's salary. The annual dues, two insiders say, amount to "a few thousand dollars," and it costs about $100 a night to stay in one of the 105 beds that are on site.

According to Johnson, a typical weekend might have as few as 20 or 30 people playing golf, or as many as 80. Some members may come to the club only three to five times a year, and others might come 15 or 20 times. It is a close-knit group that resembles in many ways a college fraternity. Members volunteer to chair the 24 committees needed to put on the Masters, and dozens of other members chip in to help on those committees. Former Sen. Sam Nunn is on the media committee.

There is no member-guest tournament, but there are four big member-only social events a year (no guests or wives allowed) that are spirited competitions: the Opening Party in October, the Governors Party in November, the Jamboree in late March and the Closing Party the third week of May. At the last Governors Party, 130 of the 300 members showed up. After the competitive rounds, some members move inside for a drink and cigar and maybe some cards. Others head back out and squeeze in another 18 holes. Except for one day at the Jamboree when two-man teams compete, the competitions are four-man best ball with adjustments for pars and birdies, according to Augusta's unique handicap system. (The course has no Slope Rating -- instead, two points are awarded for birdies or better, one for pars, everything else counts for nothing, and a handicap is derived by deducting the total number of points from 18.)

"At the time of the Jamboree our scoreboards [for the Masters] are up," Johnson says, laughing. "It might be Johnson-Chapman, that's my partner [Hugh Chapman], or it might be Stephens-Johnson -- Jack Stephens and I won twice. It's as exciting as heck. You see your name up on the scoreboard with your partner's, then if you start stumbling around your names come off the board and somebody else goes up. You have eight or 10 leaders up there. If you win that, you receive a silver box with every attendee's name engraved on it."

These are some of the most powerful men in America, yet they are thrilled by receiving a silver box they could easily buy -- because they won it on the golf course.

"Everybody plays a nassau," says another member, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, in describing the competition at the fall Governors Party. "If you win $75, you had a helluva great day. If you lose $75, you had a horrible day. And if you break even, you're lucky."

What would Mr. Roberts do?

When Cliff Roberts ran the place, the Jamboree was not only a time to celebrate the club but was also a time to poke fun at his own autocratic rule. Each year he would show a short movie at the party. One time he depicted himself making a hole-in-one on No. 16 and then walking on water from the tee to the green, a feat pulled off by the construction of a bridge just under the surface of the pond. To add to the effect, his caddie was shown tumbling into the water. Another time, the movie had a bear chasing golfers across the course. Then the camera pulled in for a close-up of the bear -- the head was lifted off to reveal Roberts. Several times Roberts showed himself singing to a rubber duck.

"There is still a six- to eight-minute movie shown at the Jamboree with a mix of a little comedy, golf course beauty shots and sentiment," says someone who spends a lot of time inside the gates of Augusta. "There might be a piece on a member who recently passed away." Perhaps this year there will be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the membership confrontation with Martha Burk.

Although the legend of Jones is at the heart of Augusta, the essence of Roberts is its soul. The single-minded efficiency -- some would say arrogance -- with which Roberts ran the club as chairman from 1934 to 1976 established a road map for other chairmen to follow. Ask an Augusta member about a club policy, and the answer is likely to begin with the words: "Well, Mr. Roberts felt ... " Though Jones is listed as president in perpetuity, it is, in fact, Roberts who still rules.

"I'll tell you, he had a great sense of humor," Johnson says. "He'd kind of let you know what he was thinking without being too harsh sometimes. When shorts first came in on the golf course, men wearing shorts, Mr. Roberts was having lunch when Charley Yates bounded up with his shorts on. Mr. Roberts looked at him and said, 'Charley, what are you doing this afternoon?' And he said, 'Well, I'm going to play golf, Cliff, of course.' And Mr. Roberts said, 'Well, I hope the course is nearby.' It didn't take Charley long to change the shorts."

So what would happen if a member showed up now wearing shorts?

"We wouldn't look too favorably on it," Johnson says with a chuckle. "It's all right for ladies to have down-to-the-knee shorts. But men, we don't look too favorably on that."

When Johnson, 72, speaks of Augusta National, it is with a genuine affection. He first set foot on the grounds shortly after World War II, first played there 50 years ago and became a member, at the suggestion of Roberts, in 1968. Time and again as he shares stories about the club his sentences are punctuated with laughter or interrupted by wistful pauses as if a particular fond memory is replaying in his mind.

"The Closing Party is a great party," Johnson says. "We have a barbecue down by the Par-3 [Course], and we hit balls to the first green down there and all walk around with our drinks and our chef, James Clark, he'd get into it with us. He usually ended up winning the money. I only say those things," Johnson says, pausing to collect the words he wanted to use. "It's just a ... " Again he stops and laughs a private laugh as if remembering a story or a long-ago incident.

"There is a great camaraderie among the membership," he says finally.

"One of the greatest things I see is when two members, who likely haven't seen each other in several months, meet on the practice tee," says one who has been there to witness such reunions. "It's like two old college buddies meeting for alumni weekend. It's just good guys who like golf and each other's company."

Because of the difficulty of getting to Augusta (the town is almost a three-hour drive from Atlanta -- many arrive by private jet and fly into Augusta's tiny airport), members begin arriving on a Wednesday night for the big parties. It is those intimate gatherings when people are trickling in that Johnson remembers with the greatest fondness.

"There might be just 25 or 30 people, and we have a great get-together up there [in the Library]," he says. "And it's just an intimate place, a warm place. Most of the time we go to bed at a reasonable hour, but every now and then we might be up a little while."

The club frowns upon lights being on after midnight (the New Year's Eve countdown takes place at 10:30). But there are some nights when the rules are bent just a little. Especially when one of those sharing stories and playing bridge or gin rummy is the chairman, who most likely is beginning a yarn with the words, "I remember the time Mr. Roberts ... "

Washington Road is just a short par 4 away, but the harsh lights and honking horns don't make it far enough past the gates of Augusta National Golf Club to reach the clubhouse. Getting past that gate is a privilege reserved for 300 members escaping the demands of one world for the pleasures of another -- and for the chosen few they bring in with them.

[ottawagolfcourses-blog]

What's It Like To Be A Member?

Washington Road could be just about anywhere in small-town America. It is a bustling eyesore-lined thoroughfare with cheap chain restaurants and bargain retail stores. And while this gaudy strip shouts with a working-class accent, whispering in more genteel tones, behind the sign off Washington Road that reads "Augusta National Golf Club Members Only," is a peaceful enclave for powerful men. And behind the mystique spawned by the secrecy that surrounds the club is a place of surprising simplicity. It is a haven where important men go to be regular guys and escape in the joys of golf and companionship.

"We don't have anything in here you can't put your feet up on," says an Augusta National member, skirting the club's no-talk policy by speaking under the condition of anonymity. That accurately describes the comfortable atmosphere of the clubhouse, the original part of which was built in 1854 as the home of Dennis Redmond, who ran the land as an indigo plantation. The floorboards creak with age and seem to speak of a bygone era. While time hasn't stopped at Augusta National, it certainly moves at its own casual pace. And casual is the operative word. The clubhouse and the 10 cabins on the grounds have an easy décor that suggests a summer getaway place rather than a stuffy citified club.

"We are not a museum," William W. (Hootie) Johnson told Golf Digest in a recent exclusive interview (as chairman he is the one Augusta National member allowed to speak publicly about club policy). "I don't say that to be cute. The golf course has constantly been improved by Bobby Jones and Mr. [co-founder Clifford] Roberts and on up through the years."

Behind the gates

At the guardhouse on Washington Road, security personnel know the members by sight, and guests are held until a member comes to collect them. Members are allowed as many as four guests at a time, depending on the time of the year, and guests can play without a member, as long as the member is on the property while his guests are playing. No guests are allowed during the four big member-only events each year.

About 330 yards and 61 magnolia trees off Washington Road and down Magnolia Lane is the front door to the clubhouse, a building that was saved from destruction 70 years ago by the club's early financial problems during the Great Depression (if they'd had the money, they'd have built a new clubhouse). Inside the door, stored beneath the counter at the switchboard, is a humidor with an excellent cigar collection known only to the members. The best go for less than $10. Unlike at many clubs, things are not overpriced at Augusta.

In the downstairs Trophy Room dinner is eaten under portraits of Jones, Roberts and U.S. President Eisenhower, a club member. A set of clubs used by Jones and the ball Gene Sarazen struck when he made his double eagle in the 1935 Masters are on display.

There is some lodging for members just off the Trophy Room. Upstairs, the Library is where card games are played and stories told and re-told. The room is not loud with money but rather quiet with charm. The Champions Locker Room, where Tiger Woods shares a locker with Jackie Burke Jr., is just off the library, as is the recently renovated Grill Room and the Members' Locker Room, complete with masseuse. Among the art in the Library is the first watercolor sketch of the course by architect Alister Mackenzie and a portrait of Roberts painted by Eisenhower.

Up a near-vertical flight of stairs, in a room with windows on all four sides that would be called a widow's walk if only there were an ocean nearby, is the Crow's Nest, the first on-site housing at the club. Originally a dormitory that slept six, it now has a sitting room, a bathroom and four enclosed rooms sleeping a total of five. This is where amateur contestants in the Masters stay, and it is still used by visiting members and guests.

Although Augusta National boasts a world-class wine cellar and high-quality food, the dining-room menu speaks to the relaxed atmosphere of the place. Only the soups vary daily. Otherwise, the choices include steak, broiled fish ("with no fancy sauces on it," a regular diner says), fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, squash and corn bread. There is shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and ice cream or a delicious peach cobbler for dessert. French fries are not served, because Roberts thought they were unhealthy.

"I think it is very comfortable, but understated," Johnson says of the clubhouse. "We try to make everyone who comes to Augusta National feel at home, whether they are members or guests."

Part of the comfort is the staff. Although the paternalistic manner in which Roberts viewed the almost exclusively black workforce can be regarded as condescending, it produced a loyalty that not only resulted in very little turnover but created multigeneration employees. The son of Eisenhower's regular caddie, Cemetery, is a caddie at Augusta today. Frank Carpenter, who recently retired, worked at Augusta for more than 50 years, starting as a waiter and ending up as the wine steward and reputedly a first-class wine buyer. The longtime chef, the late James Clark, was an active participant in the Closing Party every year. No tipping is allowed, but Roberts was known to intervene if a caddie was underpaid and always told guests to "pay what you think he was worth," which almost always ensured a healthy remuneration. "We have just unbelievably dedicated people who work here," Johnson says. "And I think that is the first thing that stands out when people come here, and that includes members. Every time we come, I think we are impressed with our service and with our people and with their dedication."

Between the clubhouse and the first tee is the massive live oak under which the most powerful people in golf gather to chat during Masters week. Winding through the tree and around the clubhouse is a gnarled Chinese wisteria vine brought to the grounds when the pre-club owners, the Berckmans family, ran the estate as a nursery. The vine is said to be the parent of all such wisteria in America.

Off to the left as you gaze at the course from the clubhouse is the 10th tee, and to the left of that is the Eisenhower Cabin, one of seven cottages that form a semicircle between the 10th hole and the Par-3 Course. While the term "cabin" is an understatement, the interior is astonishing in its simplicity. Again, the furniture is much like you would gather for a casual summer hideaway, except here the simple wood dressers have had landscape scenes painted on them by Eisenhower. On the wall is a series of photos taken by Mamie Eisenhower of the various places she and her husband lived: There is Fort Benning in Georgia; Morningside Drive in New York City, from when Ike was president of Columbia University; and, stuck quietly among the other residences, is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the White House.

No ordinary golf club

The National is different from most other golf clubs in more than just its membership. First, it is closed all summer, from the third week of May until mid-October, primarily for renovations. Also, you don't apply to join, you are invited (making it known you are interested in being a member is a surefire way not to be invited). A new member finds out he has been asked to join when a letter arrives in the mail. And legend has it that a member who falls out of favor will find out about it when a bill doesn't arrive in late summer, although one Augusta insider says he can't remember the last time that happened.

The club operates under the firm hand of the chairman, a classic benevolent-dictator system created by Roberts. There have been only five chairmen in the club's 70-year history. Advising the chairman is the board of governors. Among the key insiders are Joe Ford, the vice chairman; Will Nicholson, the chairman of the competition committees for the Masters; Billy Payne, the chairman of the media committee; and Charley Yates, the 1938 British Amateur champion, close friend of Bob Jones and the only current member who joined before World War II. Club rules are not so much written as they are hints, and those who don't get the hint get the boot. The code word is "favorably." High-stakes gambling, for example, is not looked upon favorably.

In 1937, Roberts decided members should wear green jackets during Masters week so patrons could easily identify them if they had any questions. Beginning in 1949, the Masters champion, too, received a green jacket. Each member gets one jacket, for which he is billed a small fee. Members are not allowed to take the jacket from the grounds. A Masters winner is an honorary member and may take the coat off the premises the year he is champion. When a member arrives at the club, he finds the jacket hanging in his closet. If it begins to get threadbare or if a button comes loose, a sharp-eyed employee spots the defect and has it fixed.

"Despite the secrecy surrounding the club, there are no mysterious rituals shared by the members," says one insider. "Instead of a secret handshake you're more likely to get a slap on the back."

Augusta National is more about power than it is about money. It is not what you can afford but who you know, and how you act. The initiation fee is in the "low five figures," according to one source, and a member adds, "You could afford it," knowing full well he was speaking to someone making a journalist's salary. The annual dues, two insiders say, amount to "a few thousand dollars," and it costs about $100 a night to stay in one of the 105 beds that are on site.

According to Johnson, a typical weekend might have as few as 20 or 30 people playing golf, or as many as 80. Some members may come to the club only three to five times a year, and others might come 15 or 20 times. It is a close-knit group that resembles in many ways a college fraternity. Members volunteer to chair the 24 committees needed to put on the Masters, and dozens of other members chip in to help on those committees. Former Sen. Sam Nunn is on the media committee.

There is no member-guest tournament, but there are four big member-only social events a year (no guests or wives allowed) that are spirited competitions: the Opening Party in October, the Governors Party in November, the Jamboree in late March and the Closing Party the third week of May. At the last Governors Party, 130 of the 300 members showed up. After the competitive rounds, some members move inside for a drink and cigar and maybe some cards. Others head back out and squeeze in another 18 holes. Except for one day at the Jamboree when two-man teams compete, the competitions are four-man best ball with adjustments for pars and birdies, according to Augusta's unique handicap system. (The course has no Slope Rating -- instead, two points are awarded for birdies or better, one for pars, everything else counts for nothing, and a handicap is derived by deducting the total number of points from 18.)

"At the time of the Jamboree our scoreboards [for the Masters] are up," Johnson says, laughing. "It might be Johnson-Chapman, that's my partner [Hugh Chapman], or it might be Stephens-Johnson -- Jack Stephens and I won twice. It's as exciting as heck. You see your name up on the scoreboard with your partner's, then if you start stumbling around your names come off the board and somebody else goes up. You have eight or 10 leaders up there. If you win that, you receive a silver box with every attendee's name engraved on it."

These are some of the most powerful men in America, yet they are thrilled by receiving a silver box they could easily buy -- because they won it on the golf course.

"Everybody plays a nassau," says another member, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, in describing the competition at the fall Governors Party. "If you win $75, you had a helluva great day. If you lose $75, you had a horrible day. And if you break even, you're lucky."

What would Mr. Roberts do?

When Cliff Roberts ran the place, the Jamboree was not only a time to celebrate the club but was also a time to poke fun at his own autocratic rule. Each year he would show a short movie at the party. One time he depicted himself making a hole-in-one on No. 16 and then walking on water from the tee to the green, a feat pulled off by the construction of a bridge just under the surface of the pond. To add to the effect, his caddie was shown tumbling into the water. Another time, the movie had a bear chasing golfers across the course. Then the camera pulled in for a close-up of the bear -- the head was lifted off to reveal Roberts. Several times Roberts showed himself singing to a rubber duck.

"There is still a six- to eight-minute movie shown at the Jamboree with a mix of a little comedy, golf course beauty shots and sentiment," says someone who spends a lot of time inside the gates of Augusta. "There might be a piece on a member who recently passed away." Perhaps this year there will be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the membership confrontation with Martha Burk.

Although the legend of Jones is at the heart of Augusta, the essence of Roberts is its soul. The single-minded efficiency -- some would say arrogance -- with which Roberts ran the club as chairman from 1934 to 1976 established a road map for other chairmen to follow. Ask an Augusta member about a club policy, and the answer is likely to begin with the words: "Well, Mr. Roberts felt ... " Though Jones is listed as president in perpetuity, it is, in fact, Roberts who still rules.

"I'll tell you, he had a great sense of humor," Johnson says. "He'd kind of let you know what he was thinking without being too harsh sometimes. When shorts first came in on the golf course, men wearing shorts, Mr. Roberts was having lunch when Charley Yates bounded up with his shorts on. Mr. Roberts looked at him and said, 'Charley, what are you doing this afternoon?' And he said, 'Well, I'm going to play golf, Cliff, of course.' And Mr. Roberts said, 'Well, I hope the course is nearby.' It didn't take Charley long to change the shorts."

So what would happen if a member showed up now wearing shorts?

"We wouldn't look too favorably on it," Johnson says with a chuckle. "It's all right for ladies to have down-to-the-knee shorts. But men, we don't look too favorably on that."

When Johnson, 72, speaks of Augusta National, it is with a genuine affection. He first set foot on the grounds shortly after World War II, first played there 50 years ago and became a member, at the suggestion of Roberts, in 1968. Time and again as he shares stories about the club his sentences are punctuated with laughter or interrupted by wistful pauses as if a particular fond memory is replaying in his mind.

"The Closing Party is a great party," Johnson says. "We have a barbecue down by the Par-3 [Course], and we hit balls to the first green down there and all walk around with our drinks and our chef, James Clark, he'd get into it with us. He usually ended up winning the money. I only say those things," Johnson says, pausing to collect the words he wanted to use. "It's just a ... " Again he stops and laughs a private laugh as if remembering a story or a long-ago incident.

"There is a great camaraderie among the membership," he says finally.

"One of the greatest things I see is when two members, who likely haven't seen each other in several months, meet on the practice tee," says one who has been there to witness such reunions. "It's like two old college buddies meeting for alumni weekend. It's just good guys who like golf and each other's company."

Because of the difficulty of getting to Augusta (the town is almost a three-hour drive from Atlanta -- many arrive by private jet and fly into Augusta's tiny airport), members begin arriving on a Wednesday night for the big parties. It is those intimate gatherings when people are trickling in that Johnson remembers with the greatest fondness.

"There might be just 25 or 30 people, and we have a great get-together up there [in the Library]," he says. "And it's just an intimate place, a warm place. Most of the time we go to bed at a reasonable hour, but every now and then we might be up a little while."

The club frowns upon lights being on after midnight (the New Year's Eve countdown takes place at 10:30). But there are some nights when the rules are bent just a little. Especially when one of those sharing stories and playing bridge or gin rummy is the chairman, who most likely is beginning a yarn with the words, "I remember the time Mr. Roberts ... "

Washington Road is just a short par 4 away, but the harsh lights and honking horns don't make it far enough past the gates of Augusta National Golf Club to reach the clubhouse. Getting past that gate is a privilege reserved for 300 members escaping the demands of one world for the pleasures of another -- and for the chosen few they bring in with them.

from nationgolf https://ift.tt/2IlHyfG via IFTTT

[4seasonscountryclub]

What's It Like To Be A Member?

Washington Road could be just about anywhere in small-town America. It is a bustling eyesore-lined thoroughfare with cheap chain restaurants and bargain retail stores. And while this gaudy strip shouts with a working-class accent, whispering in more genteel tones, behind the sign off Washington Road that reads "Augusta National Golf Club Members Only," is a peaceful enclave for powerful men. And behind the mystique spawned by the secrecy that surrounds the club is a place of surprising simplicity. It is a haven where important men go to be regular guys and escape in the joys of golf and companionship.

"We don't have anything in here you can't put your feet up on," says an Augusta National member, skirting the club's no-talk policy by speaking under the condition of anonymity. That accurately describes the comfortable atmosphere of the clubhouse, the original part of which was built in 1854 as the home of Dennis Redmond, who ran the land as an indigo plantation. The floorboards creak with age and seem to speak of a bygone era. While time hasn't stopped at Augusta National, it certainly moves at its own casual pace. And casual is the operative word. The clubhouse and the 10 cabins on the grounds have an easy décor that suggests a summer getaway place rather than a stuffy citified club.

"We are not a museum," William W. (Hootie) Johnson told Golf Digest in a recent exclusive interview (as chairman he is the one Augusta National member allowed to speak publicly about club policy). "I don't say that to be cute. The golf course has constantly been improved by Bobby Jones and Mr. [co-founder Clifford] Roberts and on up through the years."

Behind the gates

At the guardhouse on Washington Road, security personnel know the members by sight, and guests are held until a member comes to collect them. Members are allowed as many as four guests at a time, depending on the time of the year, and guests can play without a member, as long as the member is on the property while his guests are playing. No guests are allowed during the four big member-only events each year.

About 330 yards and 61 magnolia trees off Washington Road and down Magnolia Lane is the front door to the clubhouse, a building that was saved from destruction 70 years ago by the club's early financial problems during the Great Depression (if they'd had the money, they'd have built a new clubhouse). Inside the door, stored beneath the counter at the switchboard, is a humidor with an excellent cigar collection known only to the members. The best go for less than $10. Unlike at many clubs, things are not overpriced at Augusta.

In the downstairs Trophy Room dinner is eaten under portraits of Jones, Roberts and U.S. President Eisenhower, a club member. A set of clubs used by Jones and the ball Gene Sarazen struck when he made his double eagle in the 1935 Masters are on display.

There is some lodging for members just off the Trophy Room. Upstairs, the Library is where card games are played and stories told and re-told. The room is not loud with money but rather quiet with charm. The Champions Locker Room, where Tiger Woods shares a locker with Jackie Burke Jr., is just off the library, as is the recently renovated Grill Room and the Members' Locker Room, complete with masseuse. Among the art in the Library is the first watercolor sketch of the course by architect Alister Mackenzie and a portrait of Roberts painted by Eisenhower.

Up a near-vertical flight of stairs, in a room with windows on all four sides that would be called a widow's walk if only there were an ocean nearby, is the Crow's Nest, the first on-site housing at the club. Originally a dormitory that slept six, it now has a sitting room, a bathroom and four enclosed rooms sleeping a total of five. This is where amateur contestants in the Masters stay, and it is still used by visiting members and guests.

Although Augusta National boasts a world-class wine cellar and high-quality food, the dining-room menu speaks to the relaxed atmosphere of the place. Only the soups vary daily. Otherwise, the choices include steak, broiled fish ("with no fancy sauces on it," a regular diner says), fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, squash and corn bread. There is shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and ice cream or a delicious peach cobbler for dessert. French fries are not served, because Roberts thought they were unhealthy.

"I think it is very comfortable, but understated," Johnson says of the clubhouse. "We try to make everyone who comes to Augusta National feel at home, whether they are members or guests."

Part of the comfort is the staff. Although the paternalistic manner in which Roberts viewed the almost exclusively black workforce can be regarded as condescending, it produced a loyalty that not only resulted in very little turnover but created multigeneration employees. The son of Eisenhower's regular caddie, Cemetery, is a caddie at Augusta today. Frank Carpenter, who recently retired, worked at Augusta for more than 50 years, starting as a waiter and ending up as the wine steward and reputedly a first-class wine buyer. The longtime chef, the late James Clark, was an active participant in the Closing Party every year. No tipping is allowed, but Roberts was known to intervene if a caddie was underpaid and always told guests to "pay what you think he was worth," which almost always ensured a healthy remuneration. "We have just unbelievably dedicated people who work here," Johnson says. "And I think that is the first thing that stands out when people come here, and that includes members. Every time we come, I think we are impressed with our service and with our people and with their dedication."

Between the clubhouse and the first tee is the massive live oak under which the most powerful people in golf gather to chat during Masters week. Winding through the tree and around the clubhouse is a gnarled Chinese wisteria vine brought to the grounds when the pre-club owners, the Berckmans family, ran the estate as a nursery. The vine is said to be the parent of all such wisteria in America.

Off to the left as you gaze at the course from the clubhouse is the 10th tee, and to the left of that is the Eisenhower Cabin, one of seven cottages that form a semicircle between the 10th hole and the Par-3 Course. While the term "cabin" is an understatement, the interior is astonishing in its simplicity. Again, the furniture is much like you would gather for a casual summer hideaway, except here the simple wood dressers have had landscape scenes painted on them by Eisenhower. On the wall is a series of photos taken by Mamie Eisenhower of the various places she and her husband lived: There is Fort Benning in Georgia; Morningside Drive in New York City, from when Ike was president of Columbia University; and, stuck quietly among the other residences, is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the White House.

No ordinary golf club

The National is different from most other golf clubs in more than just its membership. First, it is closed all summer, from the third week of May until mid-October, primarily for renovations. Also, you don't apply to join, you are invited (making it known you are interested in being a member is a surefire way not to be invited). A new member finds out he has been asked to join when a letter arrives in the mail. And legend has it that a member who falls out of favor will find out about it when a bill doesn't arrive in late summer, although one Augusta insider says he can't remember the last time that happened.

The club operates under the firm hand of the chairman, a classic benevolent-dictator system created by Roberts. There have been only five chairmen in the club's 70-year history. Advising the chairman is the board of governors. Among the key insiders are Joe Ford, the vice chairman; Will Nicholson, the chairman of the competition committees for the Masters; Billy Payne, the chairman of the media committee; and Charley Yates, the 1938 British Amateur champion, close friend of Bob Jones and the only current member who joined before World War II. Club rules are not so much written as they are hints, and those who don't get the hint get the boot. The code word is "favorably." High-stakes gambling, for example, is not looked upon favorably.

In 1937, Roberts decided members should wear green jackets during Masters week so patrons could easily identify them if they had any questions. Beginning in 1949, the Masters champion, too, received a green jacket. Each member gets one jacket, for which he is billed a small fee. Members are not allowed to take the jacket from the grounds. A Masters winner is an honorary member and may take the coat off the premises the year he is champion. When a member arrives at the club, he finds the jacket hanging in his closet. If it begins to get threadbare or if a button comes loose, a sharp-eyed employee spots the defect and has it fixed.

"Despite the secrecy surrounding the club, there are no mysterious rituals shared by the members," says one insider. "Instead of a secret handshake you're more likely to get a slap on the back."

Augusta National is more about power than it is about money. It is not what you can afford but who you know, and how you act. The initiation fee is in the "low five figures," according to one source, and a member adds, "You could afford it," knowing full well he was speaking to someone making a journalist's salary. The annual dues, two insiders say, amount to "a few thousand dollars," and it costs about $100 a night to stay in one of the 105 beds that are on site.

According to Johnson, a typical weekend might have as few as 20 or 30 people playing golf, or as many as 80. Some members may come to the club only three to five times a year, and others might come 15 or 20 times. It is a close-knit group that resembles in many ways a college fraternity. Members volunteer to chair the 24 committees needed to put on the Masters, and dozens of other members chip in to help on those committees. Former Sen. Sam Nunn is on the media committee.

There is no member-guest tournament, but there are four big member-only social events a year (no guests or wives allowed) that are spirited competitions: the Opening Party in October, the Governors Party in November, the Jamboree in late March and the Closing Party the third week of May. At the last Governors Party, 130 of the 300 members showed up. After the competitive rounds, some members move inside for a drink and cigar and maybe some cards. Others head back out and squeeze in another 18 holes. Except for one day at the Jamboree when two-man teams compete, the competitions are four-man best ball with adjustments for pars and birdies, according to Augusta's unique handicap system. (The course has no Slope Rating -- instead, two points are awarded for birdies or better, one for pars, everything else counts for nothing, and a handicap is derived by deducting the total number of points from 18.)

"At the time of the Jamboree our scoreboards [for the Masters] are up," Johnson says, laughing. "It might be Johnson-Chapman, that's my partner [Hugh Chapman], or it might be Stephens-Johnson -- Jack Stephens and I won twice. It's as exciting as heck. You see your name up on the scoreboard with your partner's, then if you start stumbling around your names come off the board and somebody else goes up. You have eight or 10 leaders up there. If you win that, you receive a silver box with every attendee's name engraved on it."

These are some of the most powerful men in America, yet they are thrilled by receiving a silver box they could easily buy -- because they won it on the golf course.

"Everybody plays a nassau," says another member, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, in describing the competition at the fall Governors Party. "If you win $75, you had a helluva great day. If you lose $75, you had a horrible day. And if you break even, you're lucky."

What would Mr. Roberts do?

When Cliff Roberts ran the place, the Jamboree was not only a time to celebrate the club but was also a time to poke fun at his own autocratic rule. Each year he would show a short movie at the party. One time he depicted himself making a hole-in-one on No. 16 and then walking on water from the tee to the green, a feat pulled off by the construction of a bridge just under the surface of the pond. To add to the effect, his caddie was shown tumbling into the water. Another time, the movie had a bear chasing golfers across the course. Then the camera pulled in for a close-up of the bear -- the head was lifted off to reveal Roberts. Several times Roberts showed himself singing to a rubber duck.

"There is still a six- to eight-minute movie shown at the Jamboree with a mix of a little comedy, golf course beauty shots and sentiment," says someone who spends a lot of time inside the gates of Augusta. "There might be a piece on a member who recently passed away." Perhaps this year there will be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the membership confrontation with Martha Burk.

Although the legend of Jones is at the heart of Augusta, the essence of Roberts is its soul. The single-minded efficiency -- some would say arrogance -- with which Roberts ran the club as chairman from 1934 to 1976 established a road map for other chairmen to follow. Ask an Augusta member about a club policy, and the answer is likely to begin with the words: "Well, Mr. Roberts felt ... " Though Jones is listed as president in perpetuity, it is, in fact, Roberts who still rules.

"I'll tell you, he had a great sense of humor," Johnson says. "He'd kind of let you know what he was thinking without being too harsh sometimes. When shorts first came in on the golf course, men wearing shorts, Mr. Roberts was having lunch when Charley Yates bounded up with his shorts on. Mr. Roberts looked at him and said, 'Charley, what are you doing this afternoon?' And he said, 'Well, I'm going to play golf, Cliff, of course.' And Mr. Roberts said, 'Well, I hope the course is nearby.' It didn't take Charley long to change the shorts."

So what would happen if a member showed up now wearing shorts?

"We wouldn't look too favorably on it," Johnson says with a chuckle. "It's all right for ladies to have down-to-the-knee shorts. But men, we don't look too favorably on that."

When Johnson, 72, speaks of Augusta National, it is with a genuine affection. He first set foot on the grounds shortly after World War II, first played there 50 years ago and became a member, at the suggestion of Roberts, in 1968. Time and again as he shares stories about the club his sentences are punctuated with laughter or interrupted by wistful pauses as if a particular fond memory is replaying in his mind.

"The Closing Party is a great party," Johnson says. "We have a barbecue down by the Par-3 [Course], and we hit balls to the first green down there and all walk around with our drinks and our chef, James Clark, he'd get into it with us. He usually ended up winning the money. I only say those things," Johnson says, pausing to collect the words he wanted to use. "It's just a ... " Again he stops and laughs a private laugh as if remembering a story or a long-ago incident.

"There is a great camaraderie among the membership," he says finally.

"One of the greatest things I see is when two members, who likely haven't seen each other in several months, meet on the practice tee," says one who has been there to witness such reunions. "It's like two old college buddies meeting for alumni weekend. It's just good guys who like golf and each other's company."

Because of the difficulty of getting to Augusta (the town is almost a three-hour drive from Atlanta -- many arrive by private jet and fly into Augusta's tiny airport), members begin arriving on a Wednesday night for the big parties. It is those intimate gatherings when people are trickling in that Johnson remembers with the greatest fondness.

"There might be just 25 or 30 people, and we have a great get-together up there [in the Library]," he says. "And it's just an intimate place, a warm place. Most of the time we go to bed at a reasonable hour, but every now and then we might be up a little while."

The club frowns upon lights being on after midnight (the New Year's Eve countdown takes place at 10:30). But there are some nights when the rules are bent just a little. Especially when one of those sharing stories and playing bridge or gin rummy is the chairman, who most likely is beginning a yarn with the words, "I remember the time Mr. Roberts ... "

Washington Road is just a short par 4 away, but the harsh lights and honking horns don't make it far enough past the gates of Augusta National Golf Club to reach the clubhouse. Getting past that gate is a privilege reserved for 300 members escaping the demands of one world for the pleasures of another -- and for the chosen few they bring in with them.

[touristguidebuzz]

China Challenges WTTC With Launch of Global Tourism Group

A celebration to mark China National Day on October 1, 2017. China has launched a new tourism group, the World Tourism Alliance. Visit China

Skift Take: China has initiated the formation of a new world tourism organization. The UNWTO, WTTC and PATA are exceedingly polite about it, but there are undercurrents of uneasiness about how much influence the new China-led World Tourism Alliance can wield.

— Raini Hamdi

Editor’s Note: Skift launched a series, Gateway, as we broaden our news coverage geographically with first-hand, original stories from correspondents embedded in cities around the world.

We started with regular reports several times per month from tourism hubs Beijing, Singapore and Capetown. Gateway Beijing and Gateway Singapore, for example, signify that the reporters are writing from those cities although their coverage of the business of travel will meander to other locales in their regions. Read about the series here, and check out all the stories in the series here.

In a potential game-changer, China is flexing its tourism muscle as it launched a new global tourism organization that could challenge the incumbents.

Global travel and tourism has a new watchdog based in Beijing with 89 founding members – national tourism organizations, influential tourism companies, think tanks, international organizations, research institutes, it says — and more than 60 per cent them are based outside of China. Members hail from the U.S., France, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Japan, and Brazil.

If the new World Tourism Alliance weren’t led by China — the world’s largest outbound travel market — many would dismiss its challenge to the UN World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council. But from its onset, the World Tourism Alliance has a fraternity that would take these established tourism bodies years to build.

The entry of the World Tourism Alliance could shake things up, said a source who is familiar with China but agreed to be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity. “China is peddling soft power, recognizing that as the world’s leading outbound market, the time has come to show influence.”

China Launches New Global Tourism Group to Rival WTTC

The World Tourism Alliance debuted in Chengdu, China right under the nose of UNWTO during its 22nd General Assembly in the city. That the alliance is important to China and came right from top leadership is evident. China’s Premier Li Keqiang sent a congratulatory message for its inauguration, according to the China National Tourism Administration. 

The Makings of a New World Tourism Body

It’s not clear when the planning for the World Tourism Alliance began, but China National Tourism Administration chairman Li Jinzao led the organizing committee to create the new organization.

The World Tourism Alliance will have a general assembly, which acts as “the supreme authority,” and a board of directors and a secretariat with a secretary-general and subordinates, all based in Beijing. The working languages are Chinese, English, French, Russian, Arabic and Spanish.

It has elected its first chairman, Duan Qiang, who is the president of Beijing Tourism Group and also the World Travel & Tourism Council’s vice chair for China.

The World Tourism Alliance sees itself as a “global, comprehensive, non-governmental, not-for-profit international tourism organization.”

China Daily cited Duan as saying that the World Tourism Alliance was a natural outcome from a country that’s becoming increasingly influential in the development of the world tourism industry.

Tourism now accounts for more than 10 per cent of China’s economy and employment. In the next five years, Chinese tourists will make 700 million outbound trips, said China’s President Xi Jinping in a lletter to the UNWTO general assembly. China pays great attention to the development of the tourism industry, he said.

Inbound-wise, China is fourth in international arrivals after Spain, the U.S. and France, with 59.3 million visitors in 2016, according to UNWTO provisional figures.

Do we need another watchdog?

The UNWTO and WTTC have a chummy relationship and have formed a coalition that includes the Airports Council International, Cruise Lines International Association, International Air Transport Association, International Civil Aviation Organization, Pacific Asia Travel Association, and the World Economic Forum. That’s a fairly comprehensive, global configuration that has proven it can speak with “one voice” on tourism issues.

“Although, the World Tourism Alliance says it is non-governmental, it is strongly supported by the government,” said the source. “It is led by the Beijing Tourism Group which, although now privatized, has its origins as a state-owned enterprise, and once a state-owned enterprise, forever a state-owned enterprise. There isn’t any other global association that can boast such government support.”

How will this impact the incumbents?

“The big question is how this will impact the UNWTO, WTTC and PATA. UNWTO is government; WTTC is a club for the private sector bigwigs. PATA, which is a hybrid, may be more impacted. It should initiate a dialogue to explore how it could collaborate with WTA before it gets too powerful.”

The source said the World Travel Association will have advantages over its rivals in that it will  be influenced by the Chinese government, and national tourism organizations won’t be in a position to ignore it given China’s influence on global tourism.

“Secondly, China will commit resources, financial or otherwise to WTA, and no other association can match that. WTA does not need to be commercially driven, whereas the others all have to. In challenging trading conditions, some organizations may not have the luxury of engaging say both PATA and WTA and will be forced to choose.”

A Warm Embrace?

UNWTO and WTTC have so far not openly addressed whether World Tourism Alliance is needed, and both hav embracing it with open arms.

WTTC president Gloria Guevara said in an email interview: “WTTC welcomes this new initiative from China, which highlights the Chinese government’s commitment to growing travel & tourism. WTA, different in its constitution from either UNWTO or WTTC as both organizations are global in their mandate and represent governments and the private sector respectively. It will be a welcome addition to pushing for greater recognition of travel and tourism.

“WTA aims to bring together stakeholders from across government, private sector and academia to share best practices and research within China and the region, and WTTC looks forward to working with Mr. Duan Qiang, chair of WTA and WTTC vice chair for China. Together we will enhance our focus on maximizing sustainable growth of the tourism sector in China and Asia.”

Taleb Rifai, UNWTO’s outgoing secretary-general, said: “We consider that it will contribute to advance cooperation in our sector, which is a key to make it ever more sustainable and competitive. Any form of cooperation can only be for the benefit of our sector.

“We trust that the same way there is a strong coordination among UNWTO, WTTC and PATA the same will apply to World Tourism Alliance which will reinforce our capacity to speak on the benefits of our sector.”

PATA’s CEO Mario Hardy said he’s aware of WTA, adding, “The future will tell us what role they will play on the global tourism scene.”

The One Belt and One Road Initiative

The birth of World Tourism Alliance also fits in with China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative, which aims to connect 65 countries across three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe – to China through Europe-Asia continental roads, and sea routes through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Travel and tourism figures heavily in this initiative, and massive investment is needed on infrastructure development.

China also initiated the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in October 2013 to further the initiative.

When Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank emerged, like the World Tourism Alliance, was it drew nervous reactions that it might usurp the role of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. That didn’t  — or hasn’t — happened.

World Tourism Alliance says the alliance and UNWTO are “two wheels driving global tourism exchange and cooperation at the governmental and non-governmental levels.”

Time will tell.

[rollinbrigittenv8]

China Challenges WTTC With Launch of Global Tourism Group

A celebration to mark China National Day on October 1, 2017. China has launched a new tourism group, the World Tourism Alliance. Visit China

Skift Take: China has initiated the formation of a new world tourism organization. The UNWTO, WTTC and PATA are exceedingly polite about it, but there are undercurrents of uneasiness about how much influence the new China-led World Tourism Alliance can wield.

— Raini Hamdi

Editor’s Note: Skift launched a series, Gateway, as we broaden our news coverage geographically with first-hand, original stories from correspondents embedded in cities around the world.

We started with regular reports several times per month from tourism hubs Beijing, Singapore and Capetown. Gateway Beijing and Gateway Singapore, for example, signify that the reporters are writing from those cities although their coverage of the business of travel will meander to other locales in their regions. Read about the series here, and check out all the stories in the series here.

In a potential game-changer, China is flexing its tourism muscle as it launched a new global tourism organization that could challenge the incumbents.

Global travel and tourism has a new watchdog based in Beijing with 89 founding members – national tourism organizations, influential tourism companies, think tanks, international organizations, research institutes, it says — and more than 60 per cent them are based outside of China. Members hail from the U.S., France, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Japan, and Brazil.

If the new World Tourism Alliance weren’t led by China — the world’s largest outbound travel market — many would dismiss its challenge to the UN World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council. But from its onset, the World Tourism Alliance has a fraternity that would take these established tourism bodies years to build.

The entry of the World Tourism Alliance could shake things up, said a source who is familiar with China but agreed to be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity. “China is peddling soft power, recognizing that as the world’s leading outbound market, the time has come to show influence.”

China Launches New Global Tourism Group to Rival WTTC

The World Tourism Alliance debuted in Chengdu, China right under the nose of UNWTO during its 22nd General Assembly in the city. That the alliance is important to China and came right from top leadership is evident. China’s Premier Li Keqiang sent a congratulatory message for its inauguration, according to the China National Tourism Administration. 

The Makings of a New World Tourism Body

It’s not clear when the planning for the World Tourism Alliance began, but China National Tourism Administration chairman Li Jinzao led the organizing committee to create the new organization.

The World Tourism Alliance will have a general assembly, which acts as “the supreme authority,” and a board of directors and a secretariat with a secretary-general and subordinates, all based in Beijing. The working languages are Chinese, English, French, Russian, Arabic and Spanish.

It has elected its first chairman, Duan Qiang, who is the president of Beijing Tourism Group and also the World Travel & Tourism Council’s vice chair for China.

The World Tourism Alliance sees itself as a “global, comprehensive, non-governmental, not-for-profit international tourism organization.”

China Daily cited Duan as saying that the World Tourism Alliance was a natural outcome from a country that’s becoming increasingly influential in the development of the world tourism industry.

Tourism now accounts for more than 10 per cent of China’s economy and employment. In the next five years, Chinese tourists will make 700 million outbound trips, said China’s President Xi Jinping in a lletter to the UNWTO general assembly. China pays great attention to the development of the tourism industry, he said.

Inbound-wise, China is fourth in international arrivals after Spain, the U.S. and France, with 59.3 million visitors in 2016, according to UNWTO provisional figures.

Do we need another watchdog?

The UNWTO and WTTC have a chummy relationship and have formed a coalition that includes the Airports Council International, Cruise Lines International Association, International Air Transport Association, International Civil Aviation Organization, Pacific Asia Travel Association, and the World Economic Forum. That’s a fairly comprehensive, global configuration that has proven it can speak with “one voice” on tourism issues.

“Although, the World Tourism Alliance says it is non-governmental, it is strongly supported by the government,” said the source. “It is led by the Beijing Tourism Group which, although now privatized, has its origins as a state-owned enterprise, and once a state-owned enterprise, forever a state-owned enterprise. There isn’t any other global association that can boast such government support.”

How will this impact the incumbents?

“The big question is how this will impact the UNWTO, WTTC and PATA. UNWTO is government; WTTC is a club for the private sector bigwigs. PATA, which is a hybrid, may be more impacted. It should initiate a dialogue to explore how it could collaborate with WTA before it gets too powerful.”

The source said the World Travel Association will have advantages over its rivals in that it will  be influenced by the Chinese government, and national tourism organizations won’t be in a position to ignore it given China’s influence on global tourism.

“Secondly, China will commit resources, financial or otherwise to WTA, and no other association can match that. WTA does not need to be commercially driven, whereas the others all have to. In challenging trading conditions, some organizations may not have the luxury of engaging say both PATA and WTA and will be forced to choose.”

A Warm Embrace?

UNWTO and WTTC have so far not openly addressed whether World Tourism Alliance is needed, and both hav embracing it with open arms.

WTTC president Gloria Guevara said in an email interview: “WTTC welcomes this new initiative from China, which highlights the Chinese government’s commitment to growing travel & tourism. WTA, different in its constitution from either UNWTO or WTTC as both organizations are global in their mandate and represent governments and the private sector respectively. It will be a welcome addition to pushing for greater recognition of travel and tourism.

“WTA aims to bring together stakeholders from across government, private sector and academia to share best practices and research within China and the region, and WTTC looks forward to working with Mr. Duan Qiang, chair of WTA and WTTC vice chair for China. Together we will enhance our focus on maximizing sustainable growth of the tourism sector in China and Asia.”

Taleb Rifai, UNWTO’s outgoing secretary-general, said: “We consider that it will contribute to advance cooperation in our sector, which is a key to make it ever more sustainable and competitive. Any form of cooperation can only be for the benefit of our sector.

“We trust that the same way there is a strong coordination among UNWTO, WTTC and PATA the same will apply to World Tourism Alliance which will reinforce our capacity to speak on the benefits of our sector.”

PATA’s CEO Mario Hardy said he’s aware of WTA, adding, “The future will tell us what role they will play on the global tourism scene.”

The One Belt and One Road Initiative

The birth of World Tourism Alliance also fits in with China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative, which aims to connect 65 countries across three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe – to China through Europe-Asia continental roads, and sea routes through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Travel and tourism figures heavily in this initiative, and massive investment is needed on infrastructure development.

China also initiated the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in October 2013 to further the initiative.

When Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank emerged, like the World Tourism Alliance, was it drew nervous reactions that it might usurp the role of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. That didn’t  — or hasn’t — happened.

World Tourism Alliance says the alliance and UNWTO are “two wheels driving global tourism exchange and cooperation at the governmental and non-governmental levels.”

Time will tell.

[mindthump]

China Learns How to Get Trump’s Ear: Through Jared Kushner http://ift.tt/2op6UDl

Mr. Kushner first made his influence felt in early February when he and Mr. Cui orchestrated a fence-mending phone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi. During that exchange, Mr. Trump pledged to abide by the four-decade-old “One China” policy on Taiwan, despite his earlier suggestion that it was up for negotiation.

Now, officials said, Mr. Trump wants something in return: He plans to press Mr. Xi to intensify economic sanctions against North Korea to pressure the country to shut down its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. He has also vowed to protest the chronic trade imbalance between the United States and China, which he railed against during his presidential campaign.

China’s courtship of Mr. Kushner, which has coincided with the marginalization of the State Department in the Trump administration, reflects a Chinese comfort with dynastic links. Mr. Xi is himself a “princeling”: His father was Xi Zhongxun, a major figure in the Communist revolution who was later purged by Mao Zedong.

Not only is Mr. Kushner married to the president’s daughter Ivanka, but he is also one of his most influential advisers — a 36-year-old with no previous government experience but an exceptionally broad portfolio under his father-in-law.

“Since Kissinger, the Chinese have been infatuated with gaining and maintaining access to the White House,” said Evan S. Medeiros, a senior director for Asia in the Obama administration. “Having access to the president’s family and somebody they see as a princeling is even better.”

Former American officials and China experts warned that the Chinese had prepared more carefully for this visit than the White House, which is still debating how harshly to confront Beijing, and which has yet to fill many important posts in the State Department. Several said that if Mr. Trump presented China with an ultimatum on North Korea, it could backfire.

Shortly after winning the election, Mr. Trump said he might use the “One China” policy, under which the United States recognizes a single Chinese government in Beijing and has severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan, as a bargaining chip for greater Chinese cooperation on trade or North Korea.

Mr. Trump had thrown that policy into doubt after taking a congratulatory phone call from the president of Taiwan. That caused consternation in Beijing, and Mr. Xi refused to get on the phone with Mr. Trump until he reaffirmed the policy.

After the two leaders finally spoke, the White House said in a statement that the men had “discussed numerous topics, and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our One China policy.” Mr. Trump insisted on that wording, according to a person briefed on the process, because he wanted to make clear that he had made a concession to Mr. Xi.

Since that call, Mr. Cui has continued to cultivate the Kushner family. Later in February, he invited Ivanka and the couple’s daughter, Arabella, to a reception at the Chinese Embassy to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Photo

The gathering set to take place at Mar-a-Lago is said to be the handiwork of two people: China’s ambassador to Washington and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Inside the White House, the most visible sign of Mr. Kushner’s influence on China policy came in March at the beginning of a meeting of the National Security Council’s “principals committee” to discuss North Korea.

He was seated at the table in the Situation Room when Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, walked in. Seeing no chairs open, General Dunford headed for the backbenches, according to two people who were there. Mr. Kushner, they said, quickly offered his chair to General Dunford and took a seat along the wall.

While administration officials confirm that Mr. Kushner is deeply involved in China relations, they insist that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has taken the lead on policy and made many of the decisions on the choreography and agenda of the meeting at Mar-a-Lago.

In March, Mr. Tillerson made his first trip to Beijing as secretary of state, during which he and Mr. Xi discussed the planning in a 30-minute meeting. He was criticized afterward for repeating the phrases “mutual respect” and “win-win solutions,” which are drawn from the Chinese diplomatic lexicon and have been interpreted to assert a Chinese sphere of influence over the South China Sea and other disputed areas.

A senior American official said that Mr. Tillerson applied his own meaning to those phrases — “win-win,” he said, was originally an American expression — and was not accepting China’s definition. He said the secretary had adopted a significantly tougher tone in private, particularly about China’s role in curbing North Korea’s provocations.

Mr. Kushner has passed on proposals he got from Mr. Cui to Mr. Tillerson, who in turn has circulated them among his staff in the State Department, officials said. But the department’s influence has been reduced as many positions remain unfilled, including that of assistant secretary for East Asian affairs. Though Mr. Tillerson has kept a low profile, officials said he was trying to develop his own relationship with Mr. Trump at regular lunches and dinners.

Mr. Kushner’s involvement in China policy prompted questions after reports that his company was negotiating with a politically connected Chinese firm to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in his family’s flagship property, 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

On Wednesday, amid the glare of negative publicity, Mr. Kushner’s company ended negotiations with the firm, the Anbang Insurance Group.

Another question hanging over the meeting is whether the hard-liners in the White House will wield their influence. Mr. Trump ran for the presidency on a stridently anti-China platform, accusing the Chinese, wrongly, of continuing to depress the value of their currency, and threatening to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports.

The architects of that policy �� Stephen K. Bannon, the chief strategist, and Peter Navarro, the director of the National Trade Council — have said little publicly about China since entering the White House. But on Thursday, Mr. Trump predicted that the meeting would be “very difficult” because, as he said on Twitter, the United States would no longer tolerate “massive trade deficits.”

By inviting Mr. Xi to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s “Southern White House,” the president is conferring on him the same status as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, who spent two days in Florida, playing golf with the president and responding to a crisis after North Korea tested a ballistic missile. Such a gesture is particularly valuable, experts said, given that China is not an ally like Japan.

Mr. Xi does not play golf — as part of his anti-corruption campaign, he cracked down on Communist Party officials’ playing the sport — so he and Mr. Trump will have to find other ways to fill the 25 hours that the Chinese president will be at the club. On Thursday evening, Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, will host Mr. Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, for dinner.

There are obvious parallels between the Mar-a-Lago meeting and the 2013 summit meeting at Sunnylands in California, Walter Annenberg’s 200-acre estate, where President Barack Obama and Mr. Xi got acquainted over long walks in the desert landscape and a dinner of grilled porterhouse steaks and cherry pie. But there are important differences, too.

By the time Mr. Obama met with Mr. Xi in California, they had already met once before, when Mr. Xi was vice president. Mr. Xi held extensive meetings with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., traveling with him around the United States. Some former officials said the Mar-a-Lago meeting might reveal the disparity in experience between the two leaders and their teams.

“Sunnylands was difficult because Xi was new, while Obama had his sea legs,” said Mr. Medeiros, the former Obama administration official. “What’s interesting is that the polarity here is reversed. Xi has his sea legs; Trump does not.”

Adam Goldman contributed reporting.

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New Post has been published on http://omcik.com/ryan-clings-to-core-of-gop-health-bill-as-opposition-mounts/

Ryan clings to core of GOP health bill as opposition mounts

House Speaker Paul Ryan probably needs at least 216 votes to get the AHCA budget measure to the Senate. (Photo: Ryan)

(Bloomberg) — House Speaker Paul Ryan has told senior Republicans that he won’t change the main pillars of his plan to de-fund and partially replace the major Affordable Care Act health programs, even as Republicans search for tweaks that can break their logjam over the legislation.

Related: White House wooing of GOP holdouts on health plan may backfire

With a steady trickle of Republicans coming out against the bill, Ryan is sending the message he won’t drop any of its four main elements — refundable tax credits, health savings accounts, the phase-out of Medicaid expansion and the ban on insurers denying coverage over pre-existing conditions — according to a senior Republican aide.

But Ryan is open to tinkering around the edges of some of these policies, such as adding a work requirement for Medicaid or changing the timeline for phasing out the expansion, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Public posturing by conservatives and moderates in Ryan’s party is leaving little middle ground for compromise, and it’s unclear whether modest revisions will be enough to secure passage of the measure.

“Given how narrowly we’ve threaded this needle,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, “any abrupt change would probably be — could be a deal killer.”

Rep. Phil Roe of Tennessee, an influential voice in the party on health care who co-chairs the GOP Doctors Conference, said several significant changes to the health care plan were likely, including an increase in tax credits for people ages 55-65, because costs “are pretty high” for them.

He said the income caps for the subsidies would likely come down from $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples — perhaps to $50,000 and $130,000, respectively.

“I think there’s been some worry about higher-income people” who don’t need the subsidies getting them, he said, adding that work requirements for Medicaid will “probably get in there.”

The House Budget Committee, which advanced the measure Thursday, backed four non-binding motions, including one that suggests changing the tax credit to better assist poor people trying to buy insurance and one limiting who can sign up for Medicaid. Budget Chairwoman Diane Black said after the meeting that she didn’t know whether the House Rules Committee would consider such amendments, but that leaders are open to changes.

House Republicans will hold a policy conference on Friday to discuss proposed changes, Roe said. A lot of the final details are “still fluid,” Roe said.

President Donald Trump insists that he is behind the bill, but some of his backers are encouraging him to abandon it, too.

‘On track and on schedule’

“We are on track and on schedule,” insisted Ryan, voicing determination Thursday at a news conference to keep to a timetable for bringing the bill to the floor next week for a vote.

Trump made doing away with Obamacare a major promise in this presidential campaign, and it’s something congressional Republicans have been promising for six years.

But Republicans have not always clearly defined which parts of the Affordable Care Act they include in “Obamacare,” and keeping the promise to eliminate Obamacare has become a tough test of their Republican-controlled government. It’s also become a big personal test for Ryan as speaker; his non-stop media blitz to defend the bill in recent days has only further entwined his reputation with its fate.

“Today there are a lot of undecideds and lean noes. It depends on what the president decides to do and how strongly he decides to support the package as is,” Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, vice chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at an event sponsored by Roll Call. “If we make no changes to it, I would say that it will not pass the House.”

Many conservatives say what is on paper now smacks too much of Obamacare itself, and doesn’t do enough to cut Medicaid and other costs. They are pushing for such changes as moving up the bill’s 2020 freeze on Medicaid enrollment expansion to 2018. But even if those changes occur, some say they still would worry this bill is destined to die in the Senate anyway — something Senate Republicans themselves have been predicting will happen.

Voter counters say the loss of more than 21 Republican votes could kill the AHCA budget measure. (Image: Thinkstock)

Not enough votes

“Right now, there are not the votes,” said Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia on CNN Thursday morning. He noted that many conservative think tanks and conservative groups have come out aggressively against the bill, saying it is too much like Obamacare.

After Brat and two other House Republicans on the Budget panel bucked Ryan and voted Thursday against advancing the bill, the trio won praise from outside conservative groups.

“It makes no sense for Speaker Ryan and Chairman Diane Black to force GOP lawmakers to walk the plank and vote for a bad bill that they’ve already admitted needs to be changed,” said Club for Growth president David McIntosh, in a statement.

The other two were Republicans voting “no” were Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Gary Palmer of Alabama.

At the same time, other House Republicans say the bill goes too far, saying it would hurt seniors and low income constituents — and by inference their own political futures. This week’s Congressional Budget Office report saying there would be 24 million fewer insured by 2026 has exacerbated some of those fears.

Medicaid expansion

Rep. Leonard Lance, a New Jersey Republican, said he can’t support the GOP health bill moving toward the House floor because he wants to see the Medicaid expansion continued.

“I do not like the bill in its current form,” he said. “I would like to see a CBO score that is significantly different than the CBO released earlier this week, and I don’t think that’s possible.”

Moderates are wary of Ryan’s efforts to reel in more conservatives because some of those changes could make the measure even harder for them to support. Moving up the end of Medicaid expansion from 2020 to 2018 is a “nonstarter,” said Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a co-chairman of a group of House moderates. He said that would be too disruptive to markets and many individuals.

Dent also said there are concerns that the bill as now written provides “insufficient” levels of tax credits to help some people buy health care. For their part, many conservatives have complained those credits go too far toward creating a new entitlement — and at least should be means tested.

Initial math

House Republican vote counters have only now started putting together their war charts, but the initial math doesn’t look great. That’s because 216 backers will be needed for passage if all 430 currently sitting House members show up and vote on the bill. With the 193 House Democrats expected to vote as a bloc against repealing Obamacare, Ryan can’t lose more than 21 Republican votes.

And far more members from the right and left of the GOP conference are already saying they will vote against the bill, as is — or that they remain undecided.

The bill’s ultimate fate in the House could come down to conservatives making a choice between sticking with their rigid, principled stands or buckling under the pressure of voting for some kind of repeal bill that has a chance of getting signed.

“If you’re a Republican, just go through the bill and count the things that we have been campaigning on for years that we’ve been railing against with Obamacare, and they are in this bill,” said Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas. “I just can’t fathom us getting it to this stage of the game and not moving it across the finish line.”

Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, chairman of the ultra-right House Freedom Caucus, said Thursday on MSNBC that the next week of negotiations with Republican leaders and the White House will be “critical,” and that “I’m willing to invest the political capital to get it right.”

Meadows and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas argued in an editorial Thursday in the Wall Street Journal that Republicans essentially need to start over and write a new health care bill.

Related:

  Republicans mull dropping surcharge for uninsured in bill

  White House discusses changes to Ryan ACA de-funding plan

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Paris Loan Refund: Nigeria’s 36 Governors Threaten War With EFCC Chair, Magu

Governors of Nigeria’s 36 states have threatened to declare war on the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, over what they described as “unwarranted attack on the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, its officials and associated entities,” presidency officials familiar with the matter have told PREMIUM TIMES. The EFCC has in the past weeks been investigating the governors’ handling of the Paris Club refund made to states by the Federal Government, and has invited officials of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) secretariat over the matter. The anti-graft commission accused the governors of making some unclear payments to consultants which helped the NGF in computing and negotiating the refund due to each state of the federation. The EFCC also blocked an Access Bank account belonging to the NGF, a development that led the Forum’s chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara, to storm the presidential villa to protest, our sources said. Our sources said the meeting between Mr. Yari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo held on January 30. “The governor met Vice President Osinbajo saying he has the mandate of his colleagues to request him (the VP) to call Magu to order or that the governor would do all they can to defend their integrity and that of their states,” one of our sources said. “The governor said should Magu continue to harass the NGF, the 36 governors would strike in a way never seen before.” Mr. Yari was further quoted as telling Mr. Osinbajo that Mr. Magu had in the past weeks subjected officials at the NGF secretariat to “harassments and ceaseless interrogations.” “We have done nothing wrong and we view this onslaught on the NGF as a fishing expedition designed to embarrass, humiliate and insult the 36 governors for perceived or imaginary wrongdoing,” the Zamfara governor is quoted as saying. “We urge urge you to call him to order or we will fight back whichever way we can.” The EFCC is asking the NGF to explain payments made to Mallam Alu Agro Allied Limited, Melrose General Services Co. Ltd, Bizplus Consulting Services Ltd., Bina Consults & Integrated Services and other consultants and legal experts. But in explaining the payments, Mr. Yari reportedly told Mr. Osinbajo, “As a duly registered organisation, we, in the course of our work engage consultants and experts in areas where we do not have in-house capacity and these consultants and experts are paid for the services they render. “The right to engage staff and other experts and professionals to carry out work on behalf of the governors is within the purview of the NGF and we are hard put explaining the current development. “We fear that the harassment has gone on for too long without any signs of abating and we are urging you to call this man (Magu) to order and desist from any further harassment of our officials and consultants.” In his response, the acting president was said to have thanked Mr. Yari for calling his attention to the matter and pleaded with him and his colleagues to be patient while he looked into the matter. PREMIUM TIMES however learnt that the governors are not taking the matter lightly, and have fixed a general meeting for Wednesday in Abuja. Laolu Akande, the spokesperson for Acting President Osinbajo could not be reached to comment for this story. But the Director General of the NGF, Asishana Okauru, confirmed that Mr. Yari recently met Mr. Osinbajo over the matter. “I don’t know the details of their discussion, but I am aware the two leaders met,” Mr. Okauru said. “I am also aware that the governors are very angry with what appears a deliberate attempt by the EFCC and its leadership to malign them and to feed the media with misinformation.” Mr. Okauru said contrary to reports, he was never arrested over the matter at anytime, but that he willingly responded to enquiries by EFCC operatives. The spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, declined to comment saying he was not aware of the meeting between Mr. Yari and Mr. Osinbajo. Mr. Uwujaren however later issued a statement saying the EFCC investigation on the matter was still at a preliminary stage and that no governor had so far been indicted. Click to Post