Finally?

According to Bloomberg News, the Augusta National Golf Club may actually induct someone with ovaries. It's Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM, and more importantly, it's happening 10 years after there were protests about it. Just on the off chance that you might forget that these are some of the more obstinate men on the planet.

Whether or not a fantastically wealthy woman gets to be a member at Augusta does not, of course, matter at all to the greater cause of equality and equity between genders. At least, not directly; no one will think any differently of Martha Burk now, or pick up clubs because of this.

But what it does say is more true now, in 2012, than it was in 2002; women are far more likely to be corporate overlords of the highest level, and, um, yay for that, I guess. I understand that Augusta holds a thrall to many players and fans, and as a 30 handicap muni weekend hack with delusions of a short game myself, I can't say I'd turn down a round there on morals. It's golf; it's basically no better than gambling in a casino in terms of spending your money on people who deserve it. The ecological concerns alone are outrageous, really; you don't get pristine courses without healthy and aggressive doses of chemicals, and lots of them. Augusta's just a darker shade of dark to my eyes, and there's nothing here that wasn't done for decades to blacks, Jews, and anyone else that might put the hoi polloi off their feed. And, in all likelihood, still do.

Rather, it's this: we've progressed as a country where excluding women actually costs real dollars, and not just the penny-ante sponsorship and commercial time bucks. Augusta was only able to avoid this little truth for as long as it did because it had so much, so very, very much, and it might still, for a little while longer, if it so chooses.

But eventually, it won't. Maybe soon.

Progress?