Girls allowed?

Yet Standard Sport can reveal that talks are taking place behind the green doors of Augusta National's committee rooms that could lead to a woman being invited to join before the 2004 Masters.

And that woman will almost certainly be Moore, who is a close friend of the beleaguered chairman of the Augusta National, William 'Hootie' Johnson.

That is not all. Wie is the 13-year-old sensation who shot a six-under-par 66 in the third round of the recent Kraft Nabisco Championship in California. This was enough for the teenager to claim the honour of competing on the last day in the company of world No 1 woman player Annika Sorenstam and eventual winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc.

Now Wie has declared an intention to enter the US Amateur Public Links Championship in July.

Standing 6ft and slamming 300-yard drives, Wie has every chance of beating her male rivals. And since the winner of the Public Links Championship earns an automatic invitation to the following year's Masters tournament, she could become the first woman to tee it up in the major next April.

Wie insisted: "I think it's pretty realistic. Just a long time ago when my Dad used to watch the Masters, I used to be like, 'Oh, could I play there?'

"That is why I would like to play the Public Links, because it's the fastest way to the Masters."

Moore is equally fascinating. One year shy of 50, she is executive vice-president of Rainwater Inc, which is one of the largest private investment companies in the United States.

It was the business magazine Fortune which gave her the "babe" tag, and she admits her reputation for tough dealing in the male-dominated world of Wall Street finance has also earned her the nickname "Attila the Honey".

But Moore also has deep southern roots and a philanthropic nature.

Johnson, confounding the critics who insist he is totally biased against women, tapped into that streak of generosity and persuaded her to make a £17million donation to the University of South Carolina which subsequently named its acclaimed Moore Business School in her honour.

Moore has so far refused to comment on her potential membership of Augusta National, claiming: "We need to talk about something a little more important than golf."

But of Johnson she said: "He actually is quite progressive."

Sufficiently progressive, says the whisper here, to have Moore on board by next year when the only controversy surrounding the

Masters is whether Wie should be partnered by her hero Woods in the first round.