Redefining Her Image (Feature) APAs Want a Seat at the Table for Rebuilding Efforts (in National News) Elaine Chao Says APA Community Needs Political Development (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: ‘Warcraft III’: Blizzard Does it Again (in Business) APAs Should Not Ignore Steroid Controversy (in Sports) Adventure to ‘The Floating World’ (in A&E) Emil Amok: Have You Had Your Tiger Moment? (in Opinion)

Have You Had Your Tiger Moment?

Honest to God. This is my last Tiger column for a while. Bear with me. Unless Woods sinks consecutive holes-in-one. Or gets married to his blonde Swedish girlfriend (Is that redundant? Blonde Swede? Have you ever seen one with jet-black Asian hair?) Or when Tiger Woods speaks out against golf course development in ravaged parts of the third world. Or speaks out against Nike’s sweatshop labor. Barring anything spectacularly newsworthy like that, or the slightly less significant sighting of an aforementioned Swede with jet black hair, I will not write more about Tiger for awhile. He’s drained me of Tiger ink in this now ended quest for golf’s “calendar” slam. He lost the British Open last week, and even with the PGA championship coming up, it’s just not the same.

You might say it almost wasn’t fair. Playing in windy cold conditions close to summertime San Francisco weather, and with a hard rain to boot, Tiger battled the elements to finish Saturday’s third round with a spectacularly miserable 10 over par 81 — the worst round of his professional career.

An 81? That’s not even good enough to beat my Cousin Jose in the club scramble. That’s a score that’s almost human. But it was definitely enough to put Tiger out of contention.

Of course, rooting for Tiger is like the optimist rooting for a bull market. And he certainly gave us a slight tingle when he came back on Sunday to shoot a “Jekyll and Hyde-like” 6 under par 65 the next day to finish 29th for the tournament.

That’s golf. One day, you’re Tiger. The next day, you barely beat Emil Guillermo.

I kept thinking back to his Masters win(s), or all the other tournaments where he was so far ahead, the sports announcers practically yawned at his excellence. At Augusta, where Tiger demolished the field, they were actually saying how boring it was to see someone so good, and how all the other players weren’t up to the Tiger standard. They turned golf into a bore. Ho-hum, it’s Tiger.

So you can bet there were some people who actually relished Tiger’s fall to earth last Saturday. Mere Jealousy? Or could there be something else at play?

When Tiger was asked how he felt about losing the opportunity for winning a grand slam — four consecutive major tournaments — Tiger answered non-chalantly, “I’ve already done it.”

In fact, he has won four consecutive majors, starting with the 2000 U.S. Open, and ending with the 2001 Masters. But it’s never good enough. Suddenly, four wasn’t four unless it was all done in the same calendar year.

Isn’t it funny how people always up the ante, raise the bar on you when you think you’ve done it all. Just think, if it happens to Tiger, how many times that’s happened to other people of color in the much less publicized, more mundane pursuits of our everyday lives?

When I heard even the great Jack Nicklaus pooh-pooh Tiger’s accomplishments, giving it the “oh, he hasn’t won a slam in the same calendar year” spin, it put into perspective what all of us who strive for a certain ordinary excellence must encounter from our most common rivals. Life is competitive. As more of us enter fields not known for Asian Pacific Americans and strive for the highest levels of achievement, isn’t it funny what ugliness can grow out of an extreme sense of competition?

In the past, APAs have never been a factor in society as they are today. And you can bet others feel our heat. Many of those who once had certain fields all to themselves must now learn to deal with the new reality. They must make room for others. Or be displaced. Or they fight back hard and nasty. Raise the bar. Limit entry. Anything to preserve the status quo.

Have you had your own Tiger moment? But let’s not turn Tiger Woods into a modern civil rights hero just yet. He isn’t that, even if he hits white balls to kingdom come.

Last week’s British Open had another revealing moment for Tiger. He was put on the spot when asked about golf’s rules that exclude women at exclusive clubs like Augusta National, home of the Masters, and at Muirfield, last week’s tournament site.

A woman can play as a guest at either course. But Augusta National doesn’t allow women to be members. Murifield doesn’t allow them in the clubhouse.

Tiger was on the spot when someone asked him about excluding Sisters.

“It’s one of those things … they’re entitled to set up their own rules the way they want them,” Tiger said in an AP report. “It would be nice to see everyone have equal chance to participate if they wanted to, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

But then he said he would feel the same way if such golf clubs had no blacks or Asians.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “But it’s just the way it is.”

That’s not he way he’d pursue a ball hit into the rough.

Okay, so he’s not exactly Mr. Inclusion yet. And that’s been my biggest Tiger complaint to date. He may hit white balls. But that’s about the extent of his pro-activeness.

“It would be nice to see every golf course open to everyone who wanted to participate, but that’s just not where society is,” Woods said to reporters last week. “If you just pigeon-holed this single issue, I think you’re not doing justice in the bigger scope, and I think there are a lot of other things that go into it. It’s just not that simple.”

But doing nothing certainly makes it even simpler.

It wasn’t the first time these issues have come up. Tiger has long been taught to let his clubs do the talking. And he’s always quick to point to his foundation that helps give minorities more access to golf. It provides him with a corporate sense of cover, er, penance.

But he’s still young. He’s still the best. And there’s still time. Which means he may yet develop a sense of what his power can actually achieve, beyond smacking a white ball 300 yards.

Reach Emil Guillermo at emil@amok.com.