The Legacy of Tiger Woods

The Legacy of Tiger Woods

In the December 1996 issue of Sports Illustrated, Earl Woods, father of Tiger, set the bar pretty high for his son. “He will transcend this game and bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before. The world will be a better place to live in by virtue of his existence.”
     How’s the son doing? In the world of golf, he’s the greatest of all time. He’s won 13 majors, the second most behind Jack Nicklaus’s hallowed 19. He’s won 61 PGA events overall. He’s won the PGA Player of the Year award 9 times. Amazingly, he’s only 32-years-old.
     As a humanitarian, he’s hacking away. He’s missing the fairways. He’s getting lost in the rough. He’s misreading the greens. He’s having a hard time breaking a hundred.
     In my estimation, Tiger Woods has now had three major opportunities to transcend his game and forge a social conscience and a greater humanitarianism. Let’s take a closer look:

1) This year the state of Georgia is in crisis. “We are experiencing the single worst drought in Georgia’s history,” Governor Sonny Perdue said at a press conference. “We haven’t had a decent rainfall in nine months, and unless we get something pretty quick the disaster could reach Biblical proportions.”
     Governor Perdue made this statement from the shore of Lake Lanier in Northern Georgia. He stood on red clay. The reporters covering the press conference stood on the coast. Had Georgia not been experiencing a drought, the reporters would have been dry. The Governor would have been all wet.
     Georgia, under Governor Perdue, is fighting back through conservation. The state has imposed a mandatory ban on outdoor water use by homeowners. Violators will have their water supply turned off – at a price of $1000 to turn it back on. Second time violators will be charged $500.
      Meanwhile, at the August National Golf Club plans for the 2008 Masters Golf Championship are in “full bore,” according to Dave Spencer, the head pro at Augusta.
     “Full bore” means water. Hundred of thousands of gallons of water.
     According to Spencer, “Each time a golfer plays a round at Augusta it takes between 2,200 and 3,500 gallons of water to support that round.” By comparison, the average household in the United States uses 153 gallons a day. “On the flip side,” Spencer continued, “the tournament makes hundreds of millions of dollars for the local economy. Three million of that is given to charity.”
     So, thanks to Dave Spencer’s “flip side,” we’ve come to loggerheads. On the one hand, water usage in the age of incredibly shrinking resources. On the other hand, the economy during a recession. (As for Dave Spencer’s charity remark, while hopefully accurate, that sounds like good old-fashioned rationalizing to me.)
     Of course, the conflict is only theoretical. The business of America is business. Nobody better exemplifies this axiom than Tiger Woods. Imagine if Woods declared that this year, due to the drought, he was going to skip the Masters. “I’m worried about the drought,” he might declare. “I’m worried about the long-term effects of such a large water expenditure.”
     So far, Tiger Woods certainly isn’t his generation’s John McEnroe. Throughout the 1980s, the South African tennis association invited McEnroe to a tournament every fall. The association spruced up the invitation – to the tune of one million dollars. John McEnroe never once went to South Africa. He boycotted due to apartheid.
     Tiger Woods cares about winning and money, winning and money, winning and money. In that, Tiger Woods isn’t alone. In fact, Tiger Woods represents his country to a tee.
     A ban on outdoor water use by homeowners is one thing, but what happens when drinking water has to be rationed?

2) In the winter of 2002, an association called the National Council for Women’s Organization’s (NCWO) launched a protest against the August National Golf Club. The reason: August doesn’t admit women.
     NCWO’s chairwoman, Martha Burk, called the issue “second tier. It’s certainly not as serious as making less than the guy sitting next to you or as welfare reform. But it is absolutely symbolic of keeping women out of power. It is the ultimate old boys club – the CEOs of many of the largest corporations belong there.”
     When asked what will it take to change the status quo at Augusta National, Burk responded, “Economic pressure on the companies represented at the Club. Economic pressure has always been a very important tool in social change and this is no different. We really need to make sure that people keep the pressure.” Burk then challenged her favorite golfer. “I love Tiger Woods as a player,” she said, “but I would love Tiger as a man if he actually voiced his objection to the policy.”
     Martha Burk wasn’t the only person pushing Tiger Woods to respond. As the Masters tournament of 2002 drew nearer, the media latched on to the issue. Everyone wanted a Tiger Woods quote.
     Grudgingly, in a statement put out through his agent Mark Steinberg, Woods let it be known that he opposed Augusta’s membership policy.
     That set off Hootie Johnson, then the chairman of Augusta National. He replied, “I won’t tell Tiger how to play golf if he doesn’t tell us how to run our private club.”
     Tiger Woods – with the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to advocate for equal rights to an international audience – took a mulligan. Days before the tournament, he replied, “For us to go to members of Augusta National Golf Club telling them, listen, you’ve got to let women in here, it’s not for us to say. It’s a private club.”
     So far, Tiger Woods certainly isn’t his generation’s Muhammad Ali. In 1966 Ali, then the heavyweight champion of the world, refused to serve in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. While he claimed conscientious objector status due to his religion (“War is against the teachings of the Holy Koran,” he declared), he let his true feelings show. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” he said. “They never called me nigger.”
     Muhammad Ali did not miss his chance to advocate for equal rights. And it cost him dearly. The New York State Athletic Commission stripped him of his boxing license. He didn’t fight for another five years. Financially, he lost the earnings of a great boxer in his prime. The heavyweight champion in Ali’s absence, Joe Frazier, secretly supported Ali during this time.
     That would be like Tiger Woods taking a controversial social stand, incurring the wrath of his corporate sponsors, and needing the financial support of his chief rival, Phil Mickelson.
     By the way, Golf Digest predicts that Woods will become the first billionaire athlete by 2010.

3) With Tiger Woods absolutely dominating the golf tour, the question arises. How do you beat him? Recently, during a tournament broadcasted by the Golf Channel, the question came up. Broadcaster and former golfer Nick Faldo replied that his competitors should “gang up” on Woods.
     There was laughter in the broadcast booth. Another broadcaster, Kelly Tilghman, added, “Lynch him in a back alley.”
     Tilghman and Faldo laughed. The next day the ever-vigilant Al Sharpton called for the firing of Tilghman. The Golf Channel responded by suspending Tilghman for two weeks.
     How did Tiger Woods react? He issued a statement through his agent Mark Steinberg. He called the remark “a nonissue… Regardless of the choice of words used, we know unequivocally that there was no ill intent in her comments.”
     That’s not the point. Race is not a nonissue. Race relations are an omnipresent issue. Tiger Woods – with the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to advocate for equal rights, the chance to jump upon a totally inappropriate remark and “bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before” – whiffed.
     So far, Tiger Woods certainly isn’t a modern day Arthur Ashe. He doesn’t exactly exude a social conscience. Arthur Ashe was arrested twice in his life. For protesting outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally. And for protesting outside the White House for the government’s policy of automatically returning Haitian refugees.
     Arthur Ashe explained his philosophies shortly before his death in 1993. “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give, however, makes a life.”

If Tiger Woods understands these words, there is no evidence. So far, Tiger Woods lives from tee to green. In the world of golf, he will be remembered as the greatest of all time. As a humanitarian, he won’t be remembered. Is that the legacy his father spoke of?

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The Gonzo Journalism of Brian Josepher

The Legacy of Tiger Woods