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Tiger Woods looks at his approach shot onto the second green during the Battle at Bighorn Monday, July 29, in Palm Desert, Calif. Photo by The Associated Press.
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Even a Little Growl From Tiger Would Be Enough
By Ethen Lieser
AsianWeek Staff Writer
No doubt about it, Tiger, you are the greatest golfer in the world. But when you were confronted with questions about women’s membership issues at Augusta National, you froze like a popsicle. The answers that spurted from your mouth were redundant, vague, sputtered and idled like a ’79 Bonneville.
It all started a couple weeks ago when a national women’s group demanded female members by next year’s Master’s tournament. Augusta officials insisted that it doesn’t have exclusionary membership policies, but how do you account for not having an African American member until 1990? And no female members in 70 years?
But let’s get one thing straight here, women do have a consolation prize — they can play as guests. They just don’t get all the preferential treatment of male golfers: a complimentary pick of a flight attendant wife, a lifetime supply of knickers and a portable martini mixer.
But women don’t want that frivolous stuff anyway; they want those membership cards with their names (middle name included) stenciled on them. Are they able to question tradition?
“It’s one of those things where everyone … [is] entitled to set up their own rules the way they want them,” Woods told The Associated Press. “It would be nice to see everyone have an equal chance to participate if they wanted to, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Then Woods went on to say that he would feel the same way if golf clubs excluded African Americans or Asian Pacific Americans.
America doesn’t buy it. Why can’t traditions be broken?
Maybe Augusta isn’t equipped with women’s bathrooms. Or maybe it doesn’t want to find tampons in its wastebaskets. Or maybe it is afraid to find all those golf shirts in the pro shops suddenly ironed and pressed. Whatever the case, traditions, like records, are made to be broken.
It’s out of my hands, Tiger says. But how could it be out of your hands? If anyone owned golf, it would be you, Tiger. Forget the pressures from your snot-nosed endorsers out there: General Motors, Nike, American Express. This is the perfect opportunity for you to step up to the plate, to be political. Time to take a swing at legendary status.
Boxing great Muhammad Ali did. When he petitioned against the Vietnam War and refused to join the Army, he had his heavyweight championship belt stripped from him. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” he once said. Now look at him, he’s more than an aging athlete, a man who has more substance than a right hook: He’s an American deity.
Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown has always contended that athletes like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley never did enough for the black community. He’s probably right. When we think of Jordan or Barkley, we only see their magic on the court, not off, which compelled Brown to say on Sporting News Radio: “When they are over the hill, it will be too late for them. They will come back to the black community, probably as a liability.”
Harsh. But honest words.
But there is a reason you are apolitical, Tiger. Obviously, endorsers don’t want to get tied up in any type of struggle dealing with political correctness. And when you’re talking about this much money, it doesn’t just talk and walk. It shamelessly wags its hind end, taunting you: “Can you resist me?”
You have been named the most appealing product endorser for three straight years. Endorsement spending for golf has reached over $400 million worldwide. You have raked in over $50 million in earnings per year. You were the youngest person featured in Forbes magazine’s Richest Americans Under 40 list. And you have boosted television ratings and tournament purses to stratosphere-high levels.
You do have pull, Tiger. Boycott tournaments, people will follow. Drop endorsers, others will come knocking. Mouth off, it will be front-page news.
“It would be nice to see every golf course open to everyone who wanted to participate, but that’s just not where society is,” he said. “If you just pigeonholed 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.”
It is simple. You’re being bullied by tradition, endorsers and money. Really, Tiger, you have all the control.
Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.
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