TV urged to ditch sex-row Masters

The American CBS television channel is facing increasing pressure to cancel coverage of next month's Masters in Augusta.

The first of the year's four majors promises to be a sporting spectacle as the world's greatest golfer, Tiger Woods, goes for an unprecedented third successive victory in a tournament that rivals only Britain's Open Championship for prestige.

But the National Council of Women's Organisations (NCWO) wants CBS to turn off its cameras as part of an increasingly vitriolic campaign against the all-male membership policy of Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the event.

The NCWO is a Washington-based lobby group claiming to represent seven million women in the United States and its chairwoman, Dr Martha Burk, has brought the war in Iraq into the argument. She said: "Broadcasting the Masters now and showcasing a club that discriminates against women is an insult to the nearly quarter of a million women in the US armed forces.

"It's appalling that the women who are willing to lay down their lives for democratic ideals should be shut out of this club."

CBS refused to comment. But Glenn Greenspan, spokesman for Augusta National, said: "Ms Burk will say anything to get publicity. But if she is invoking the troops to draw more attention to herself, only three words apply: shame on you."