Former ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne was a mainstay of the company’s broadcasts of The Masters for years. But he’s now revealed why he believes he’s banned for life from Augusta National Golf Club.
Augusta National is infamous for drawing a hard line in the sand for the words uttered by its broadcasters – whether it’s calling fans ‘patrons’ or calling the rough the ‘second cut’ or any various other examples of verbiage.
But it also clamps down to avoid any crass comments – which is where Mayne believes he ran afoul of the club’s executives.
Mayne revealed this all an appearance on an episode of ‘God Bless Football’ with his former ESPN co-worker Jon ‘Stugotz’ Weiner.
While Mayne didn’t give a hint to when the ban necessarily began, he does have a strong idea for what caused it.
‘I’m banned for life from Augusta, I think,’ Mayne said when asked if he ever got to play the course.
Former ESPN star Kenny Mayne revealed that a joke about bringing women to The Masters is what got him ‘banned for life’ from the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club
Augusta National didn’t allow women to be members of the club until 2012
‘I used to cover golf, I used to do the TPC Sawgrass, and I did the U.S. Open every year for, I don’t know, seven or eight years. It was me, Van Pelt, Andy North, the whole gang.
‘At TPC one year, I just made some smartass comment about, “We’ll see you at the Masters, where we bring four saucy ladies out to play!” Or, you know, just something stupid, right? But mentioning that I’m bringing women to play golf.
‘And [Augusta National] called into the ESPN truck, like we’re still on the air, and the people in Augusta are literally, they somehow have the inside number to the truck. And they were like, “He is not coming!” So I was never invited to go by my lords.’
Augusta was notoriously a men’s-only club for a majority of its existence, which constantly drew condemnation from women’s rights groups.
The club finally broke its old precedent in 2012 when they admitted former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and financier Darla More as members.
Mayne left ESPN in May of 2021 after 27 years with the company. It was reported that he was asked to take a paycut of over 60 percent, which he declined.