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Women at Augusta |
September 2002
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Tiger Owes Georgian Women Nothing
The British Open was something of a disappointment for young Tiger Woods, who blew a chance at the third leg of golf's Grand Slam with an 81 in the third round. It was also a disappointment for the professional whiners on the alleged left because it shifted attention away from the site of the Masters, where women are not allowed as members and where Mr. Woods did not protest stridently enough to suit them. Never mind that there are no poor people in the club either.
The position of these public complainers illustrates two disconcerting issues that have made the left in America a joke, and which threatens to do the same to the creed in Europe. First, the American left is very bad at strategy, and second, it is very bad at deciding who's opinion counts.
In a street fight, the smart money is always on the right. Their love of military action and organization yields the bigger number of thugs and brawlers. However, winning in politics or anything else requires one to use strength where the enemy is weak. If Mr. Woods is a figure whose opinion matters, is getting upper middle-class Georgian ladies (an over-privileged group actually) membership cards at Augusta the best use of his political capital? Honestly, I think he should do more about the Nike sweatshops. It is a more important fight involving issues of life and death, and he has more influence over Nike as an endorsing athlete than he does over the membership committee at Augusta.
Yet, that begs the question of whether Mr. Woods' opinion matters at all. Without doubt, he is the greatest golfer in the world. That does not, however, confer on him the standing to make moral judgments for private groups of which he is not a member. He isn't a prophet, a philosopher, nor a jurist. Frankly, who gives a damn what he thinks?