"With an impressive display of power golf, Woods' woods master
Masters",.......gotta love it, a headline like that! As I read the story,
I wished momentarily that it wasn't absolutely necessary for each and every
reporter, television announcer and radio talk show host to constantly refer
to the golfing sensation, Tiger Woods as "the first
African-American......." "the only golfer of African descent....." etc.
It would be a nice gesture to simply refer to him as a handsome young man
of rare skill on the golf course. His accomplishments in this sport are
enough to single him out in any crowd. No need to repeat over and over
that he is black. We know that already!
I understand why the media finds it necessary to keep us reminded of
Tiger's blackness, because we don't remember seeing any golfers of color in
our past memory. Therefore he is an oddity. In fact it has only been
since 1975 that athletes whose skin was dark have been admitted on the
famous Masters course in Augusta, Georgia. As far as I can tell, Tiger is
the result of a lifetime spent with a single minded purpose, that is, to be
the best golfer he can be. That fact plus an obvious talent has resulted
in some wonderful accomplishments in the very beginning of a career. I'm
pretty sure that we "ain't seen nothin' yet."
Golfing has never been something I wanted to do but I sometimes enjoy
watching others play. When we lived in Dallas, Tom played and I used to
trail around after him, but mainly, since we lived next to a nine-hole
course out in Lakewood, I used the pretty little park-like course to walk.
My black Cocker Spaniel, Jet liked to go along and retrieve balls. More
than once I've had to extract a ball, wipe the slobbers off and drop it
where it had landed, for the golfer to find and hit again. Still we
enjoyed exercise there while waiting for the birth of our son.
Golf, which is supposed to give lots of exercise to a lean body, was a
walking game in those days. I never see any golfers except the pros
walking around the courses today. On the other hand I don't recall ever
seeing a fat man or woman playing golf and I know a handful of women in
their seventies and eighties who play golf often and are slim as reeds.
When I was growing up, I heard my uncles refer to golf as "cow pasture
pool" and I got the impression that they considered the game one for
"sissies", sissies being doctors, lawyers, bankers and car salesmen. They
thought baseball was the only game Real Men would play. There was a golf
course in Vernon and on trips down there, which meant crossing the Pease
River bridge, if it was a nice day we could see men walking around the
course followed by little boys carrying bags of clubs. "Cow-pasture pool",
my dad would mutter in disgust. "Grown men out there whacking at a little
bitty ball! What good do they get outa that?"
I grew up believing that if one of my family was ever caught on the golf
course, the rest of us would just laugh ourselves silly over it. If a man
wanted to play something after the field work was done, why it would be
baseball or maybe basketball on the hard dirt courts beside the school
house. Of course women and girls didn't play anything at all. They just
sat in the bleachers and cheered their men on.
Television and Arnold Palmer brought golf into every living room and
certainly brought wide attention to this sport. I became a member of
Arnie's Army, couch potato style, and used to watch his wicked drives and
amazing putts with one arm around my third black Cocker, Mickey (for Mickey
Mantle). Mickey would watch the hit ball arch across the screen and jump
down to pick it up only to stand before the TV at a loss when the ball
stopped just out of his reach. My interest in golf faded when Arnie did
but lately I've stopped in my stroll across the living room when Tiger
Woods' image comes across the screen. He is exciting to watch. I'm sure
that he will be a great influence on the color of golfers in the future
just as fifty years ago baseball moved into a new dimension when Jackie
Robinson walked out onto Ebbets Field.
Jesus and Moses were playing a round of golf one fine spring day. Moses
hit a long ball that landed in the lake but the water just parted and the
ball rolled right across and landed on the green. Jesus hit his ball and
when it got to the lake it just skipped right across the water and landed
beside Moses' ball on the green.
Just then a ball came arching over their heads and fell with a big splash
in the middle of the lake. At that moment a huge bass shot up from the
water with the ball in his mouth, an eagle swooped down from the sky,
grabbed the ball in his talons, flew over to the green and dropped it a few
feet from the pin. A beaver standing there flipped his tail and tossed the
ball into the cup.
Moses took off his cap and looked at Jesus, "Man I really hate it when
your Father plays with us!"
