How to Get Admitted to Augusta National - the Elite Golf Resort

How do you get admitted to Augusta National? Well, you certainly don't ask. You may as well paint your face green and chain yourself to the gates for all the good it would do. In fact, you cannot apply for membership at the Augusta National Golf Club ("The National," to members)-it applies to you.

Or at least that is how we understand it. Like everything else at the storied home of the Masters Tournament, membership policies are entombed in mystery. (So seriously is secrecy taken that even corporate titans are scared to death of speaking to the press for fear of being booted out.) Still, some things are known. There are 300 members and a waiting list about as long. Jack Welch, George Schultz, Sandy Weill, and Arnold Palmer are members. Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford are not. And, in case you haven't been keeping up with the news, women are not allowed. At least not yet.

Given what has leaked out, here are the qualifications for membership into golf's Mecca: You (1) run a major company (Fortune 100 preferred); (2) comport yourself as a gentlemen at all times, or at least while you are on the golf course; (3) had nothing to do with the Clinton administration or Monica Lewinsky; (4) are a pretty fair, or at least serious, golfer; and- this is the key-(5) are known and liked by somebody down there. If you can only know one member, make it Hootie Johnson, an executive with Bank America from Columbia, South Carolina. He's the chairman of the club and exercises final discretion over all membership decisions.

If you meet all these qualifications, don't ruin it by making inquiries. Being chummy with the members is one thing, but pandering is considered unseemly. Bill Gates (a mediocre but avid golfer) has reportedly been pressing his good friend, fellow billionaire and National member, Warren Buffett, to get him in-without success.* Power is everything at Augusta and it trumps even money.

Memberships come out in the fall. If you are lucky enough to be admitted to the National you will start getting a bill in October. The initiation fee is $25,000, which may sound steep, but is a lot lower than many lesser clubs. Monthly dues are a reasonable $100, although the season only lasts from October through May due to the ghastly humidity and heat of central Georgia that make summer play unbearable.

For those prone to tantrums, expulsion of members is also handled without fanfare: If your bill stops coming, you have been kicked out.