Sports

Woods should speak out

Cougar Pause

Christian Schmidt

Tiger Woods will begin his quest for a third straight Masters win today. Woods is the best golfer in the world and is swiftly winning his way into the pantheon of the sportis legends.

Unfortunately, Woodsi quest for victory is overshadowed by an issue that is only peripherally related to the sport. Augusta National, the country club where the tournament is held, has an all-male membership and no plans to admit a female anytime soon.

Most people in this country donit care much about golf. Individual sports have never captured our nationis attention in the way team sports like football, basketball and baseball have. And most people donit care much about Augusta National, which is, after all, a private club outside Atlanta and hardly an important part of most peopleis lives.

The issue here, though, is bigger than one club failing to admit female members. Itis an issue of fairness, of avoiding discrimination and simply doing the right thing.

Certainly private clubs have a right to determine who is and is not a member of their organizations. At the same time, those clubs have a responsibility to do the right thing.

Forty years ago, segregation was still in place throughout the South, and 20 years ago many clubs across the nation still would not admit black, Hispanic or Asian members.

Augusta National, once all-white as well as all-male, now admits members of any race, though fewer than a dozen black men are among the clubis approximately 300 members.

Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson has firmly maintained the stance that the club will not bow to pressure to admit a female member until the club is ready. Of course, when Johnson says that, itis hard not to read into his words that a woman will be admitted to the club over his dead body.

Tiger Woods, whose high-profile status means he is constantly asked about the issue, has said little. Though he said he believes the club should admit a female member, he said it in the mildest terms possible. But this issue is one that should matter to all the players, sponsors and fans. It should also matter as much to Tiger as anyone else.

That is why Woodsi silence on the subject is so troubling. He has talked before about issues of social concern, particularly in a series of Nike advertisements a few years ago in which Woods discussed the increase in black members at previously all-white clubs over the past 30 years.

The most obvious model for Woods to follow is Arthur Ashe, the legendary American tennis player. As a black man who grew up in the segregated South, Ashe used his fame as a platform to campaign for various social reforms, including ending apartheid in South Africa.

Ashe was a great player, but he was a much greater man. In the last days of his life, as he was slowly dying from AIDS-related illnesses, he campaigned for greater AIDS awareness in America and throughout the world.

Instead of Ashe, Woods has chosen a different model for his public persona. Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player in the history of basketball, has spent more than two decades in the public eye without ever saying anything interesting. Jordan has made a career out of not causing controversy and raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisements.

Augusta National should admit female members soon. And Woods may want to rethink whom he models himself after. Hint: Be like Arthur, not Mike.

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