Chris Baldwin: Martha Burk mocked by Hootie's replacement, no one cares (women have accepted their place in the golf world)

How low can Martha Burk go?

She's already become the least effective activist of all time. It's so bad for Burk that Hootie Johnson's replacement Billy Payne is effectively outright mocking her. When Payne received a letter from Burk requesting a meeting to discuss Augusta National's men-only membership stance, he did everything but laugh at it publicly.

But he sure came close.

"I think I'm aware of her positions on all issues as they relate to Augusta," Payne said in a conference call. "I don't see that any dialogue would be meaningful or helpful."

Burk might as well replace her business suit with a clown suit for how seriously the Augusta boys take her.

The fact is Burk grossly overestimated the public's interest in general - and women's in particular - over Augusta's policies.

Most women simply don't care if they can play golf at Augusta National or not. Or any other private club for that matter. When I wrote about how there wasn't anything ominous in Southern Dunes men-only membership policy, there weren't a lot of people moved enough to disagree about the Arizona course.

Contrast that with the reaction anyone who dares question Michelle Wie's record.

The truth is it's hard to argue with common sense. It's hard to manufacture outrage when it doesn't exist. Especially with women-only gyms out there.

TravelGolf.com's resident feminist Jennifer Mario didn't even feel compelled to argue with my logic.

Because no one cares. There are more than enough places for everyone to play golf and more than enough gyms for everyone to work out. There's no need to get worked up over a membership policy that excludes one gender or the other. This isn't the early 20th century when idiots were trying to keep women from voting.

It's just a few - a very few - golf courses.

From the beginning, Martha Burk's total true diehard support consisted of a few prominent female sports writers: Christine Brennan of USA Today and Selena Roberts of the New York Times.

There was never any mass movement. Martha Burk's finding this out the hard way. And Billy Payne and the rest of the green jacket good old boys are surely doubled over in the azaleas.

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