The Uber-Nerdy Augusta National of the 18th Century

The similarities between the ultra-selective Augusta National and the Royal Society are more than you think

Okay, maybe you weren’t thinking about how exclusive the Royal Society was in the early 1700s, but if you were, then this piece of science history is right up your alley.

Also, if you weren’t aware, Augusta National is home to one of the most popular professional golf tournaments in the world and is a very exclusive golf club located in the heart of the south — so exclusive that up until 2012, they didn’t allow women.

(This is a Little Rascals reference, probably way over the head for some younger readers)

This is golf club that’s been open since 1930. Membership fees are estimated to be between $100K–$300K with annual dues around $30K…but “girls have cooties, so we can’t have them in our club.”

Now, I didn’t bring up Augusta National to make a political statement — some of you will remember the heat the club leadership took for preventing women membership for such a long time. (At some point, money always wins, though. The PGA event that Augusta hosts every year, the Masters, was losing major sponsors and therefore sponsorship dollars, so club leadership eventually capitulated.)

I brought it up to highlight its exclusivity that persisted for almost a century. There…