Mrs ROMETTY FOLLOWS CONDOLEESSA RICE, DARLA MOORE

IBM CHIEF EXEC GINNI BECOMES 

THIRD FEMALE MEMBER AT AUGUSTA

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FROM GOLF DIGEST.COM

By SAM WEINMAN

IBM chief executive Virginia (Ginni) Rometty has joined Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as the third female member at Augusta National, the long-time home of the Masters, multiple sources have confirmed. 

Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang is also among the handful of new members

Rice, the former United States Secretary of State, and Moore, a finance executive, were invited to be Augusta's first female members in 2012.

Two Augusta National members said Rometty (pictured right) was seen hitting balls at the range last Friday at the club.

“She has a nice swing,” one member said. “She’s obviously got a big job so she doesn’t play much, but if she got to play, she’d be a pretty good golfer.”

Rometty was observed being congratulated by other members and seemed "a little nervous” in front of club chairman Billy Payne.

Calls to representatives at Augusta National were not returned. With the exception of its landmark announcement of Rice and Moore joining as members, the club has not commented on club memberships.

Ed Barbini, an IBM spokesman, would not confirm Rometty's membership at Augusta.

"We don't talk about Mrs Rometty's private memberships," Barbini said. "That's between her and any private organization."

In recent years, NFL legend Lynn Swann and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell have been seen wearing green jackets at the club during the Masters, but neither have discussed their memberships publicly.

Prior to Rice and Moore's inclusion at Augusta, Rometty had been identified as a candidate to break the club's gender barrier, given her role at IBM, a long-time corporate sponsor of the Masters. 

Previous IBM chief executives have been members at the club, but despite ongoing public pressure, the club did not immediately extend an invitation to Rometty when she became the computer behemoth's first female CEO in 2012. 

That year, during the Masters, Rometty was seen entertaining clients at the club, but did not answer questions from the media about a membership.

Rometty is said to be an occasional golfer. She maintains a 35.4 handicap index out of the Golf Club of Purchase, near IBM's headquarters in Armonk, New York State, and Shadow Wood Country Club in Florida. 

 Her last posted score was a 116 in July 2013.

 WHAT DO LETTERS IBM STAND FOR?
The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation, with headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.
The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR) through a merger of three companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Company
CTR adopted the name International Business Machines in 1924. Securities analysts nicknamed IBM Big Blue in recognition of IBM's common use of blue in products, packaging, and logo.
In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the No. 2 largest U.S. firm in terms of number of employees (435,000 worldwide), the No. 4 largest in terms of market capitalization, the No. 9 most profitable, and the No. 19 largest firm in terms of revenue.
Globally, the company was ranked the No. 31 largest in terms of revenue by Forbes for 2011.as of 2013, has held the record for most patents generated by a company for 20 consecutive years.^[