Don’t be surprised if photographs show up from The Masters again this year portraying a smiling IBM Chairman and CEO Ginny Rometty watching the action.

Don’t be surprised if she again isn’t wearing a fabled Green Jacket, either.

Just a year ago, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Augusta National were caught up in a media furor when Ginny Rometty, Big Blue’s first female CEO, wasn’t awarded a Masters green jacket and made Augusta’s first female member. Today, Augusta has two women as members, but not Rometty.

So when will IBM take a stand and demand that Rometty be made an official member and adorned with a custom-made jacket just like the one that is likely to be put on Tiger Woods, the world’s top golfer, on Sunday?

Despite IBM’s power as a top-line sponsor of The Masters at Augusta National, Big Blue probably won’t.

Such a move is likely considered not to be good for business.

Or 80-year-old Augusta has said: “We have two female members now. Go fish. We’ll find someone else to replace you.”

And Augusta probably could do just that.

As Bloomberg news reported earlier this week: “International Business Machines Corp. will sponsor Augusta National Golf Club’s Masters tournament for the 12th straight year … even as Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty waits for a public invitation to join the formerly all-male organization.”

Bloomberg aggressively covered the issue last year, and again notes this year that Rometty is being denied the Jacket given previous IBM CEOs.

“You can’t say it’s an equal-rights issue anymore because they admitted a couple women,” Roth said. “Now it’s Augusta playing by its own arcane rules, as always, and they have nothing to gain by playing into the controversy.”

Last August after the Masters female member furor refused to go away, Augusta did select former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and philanthropist Darla Moore as its first female members. Recently, Bloomberg asked if Rometty would be invited to join. Augusta declined comment. IBM isn’t talking, either.

Bloomberg did note that Rometty “plays golf, though not frequently,” and even tracked down her scores.

“Since January, she has posted scores for eight rounds of golf, including four rounds in April, according to the U.S. Golf Association’s handicap-tracking website. Her scores range from 105 to 135. She has a 36.3 handicap index, which measures how far above par she is on average.”

Woods, the first black golfer to win The Masters in 1997, praised the addition of Rice and Moore as members.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Woods said at a pre-tournament press conference. “It was the right timing. And for me, knowing Condoleezza over all these years, it couldn’t have been a better person.”

The timing is right as well to make Rometty a member, too. 

[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out more than a decade of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]