ATLANTA — Augusta National Golf Club, host of the annual Masters Tournament, has admitted former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and financier Darla Moore as its first female members.

The addition of Rice and Moore follows almost a decade of scrutiny over the club's all-male membership. In 2003, William “Hootie” Johnson, the organization's chairman, said it wouldn't admit a woman “at the point of a bayonet,” leading to a protest near the club during the 2003 Masters Tournament.

“We are fortunate to consider many qualified candidates for membership at Augusta National,” Chairman of Augusta National and the Masters Billy Payne said in an emailed statement Monday. “Consideration with regard to any candidate is deliberate, held in strict confidence and always takes place over an extended period of time. The process for Condoleezza and Darla was no different.”

The women join the private golf club in Augusta, Ga., after the organization faced renewed scrutiny this year over its lack of female members amid questions about a possible invitation to Ginni Rometty, chief executive officer of IBM Corp.

Rice, 57, is also a member of Shoal Creek in Alabama and Cypress Point in California.

“I have long admired the important role Augusta National has played in the traditions and history of golf,” Rice said in a statement released by the club. “I also have an immense respect for the Masters tournament and its commitment to grow the game of golf, particularly with youth, here in the United States and throughout the world.”

An avid golfer, Rice served as the honorary chairman for the Regions Tradition, a tournament on the 50-and-over Champions Tour, at Shoal Creek in June. She played in the event's Pro-Am tournament with Earnie Deavenport, an Augusta National member.

Business colleagues and close friends who worked with Payne on bringing the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta and running it said the former University of Georgia football star has wanted to add women to the membership roll since becoming chairman six years ago.

“Certainly during the Olympics, Billy Payne was an advocate for diversity in both hiring and procurement, to a degree that was unusual even for the Olympics,” former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who worked with Payne during the Olympics, said in a telephone interview in April. “He took real risks in those areas.”

Franklin predicted in a 2007 interview that Payne would shake up the club's old-fashioned image and traditions: “Billy is not a crusty old man,” she said then.

Payne was criticized during this year's Masters when he touted the club's initiatives to expand the popularity of golf during a pretournament press conference while refusing to answer questions about excluding women.

Cindy Fowler, who has known Payne since 1987 and worked closely with him as a member of his inner circle at the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, said Payne's delay in adding women was likely due to his attempts to please the club's older members.

Adding women will also change the club's inner dynamics, said Fowler, now CEO of Presenting Atlanta, an event management firm that has organized parties and dinners at Augusta National. She describes Payne as a smart, articulate, driven perfectionist who wants “to do the right thing.”

While many of the world's top executives have shied away from commenting on the club's membership, Augusta member Warren Buffett said in May that he would add women if he was in charge.

Rometty, who became IBM's first female CEO in its 100-year history in January, didn't join Rice and Moore as a new member. Augusta National has historically invited the CEO of IBM to join the club, including the company's four previous chief executives.

Rometty, 55, has said she does play golf, though only occasionally.

IBM airs TV commercials during Masters broadcasts and has run the masters.com website since 1996.

Nine years ago, Martha Burk, then head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, staged a protest near the front entrance of the club founded in 1933 by golf champion Bobby Jones and Wall Street financier Clifford Roberts. Augusta didn't have a black member until 1990, when it extended an invitation to Gannett Co. television President Ron Townsend, who still belongs.

That move followed the PGA of America's decision to move its annual championship, the season's final golf major, from Alabama's Shoal Creek because of that club's all-white membership.

Payne, who succeeded Johnson as chairman of the tournament and the golf club, has previously said he has “no specific timetable” on possibly ending all-male membership.

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With assistance from Beth Jinks in New York and Margaret Newkirk and John Helyar in Atlanta.