Shame of Woods forced golf to confront its sexism
Tiger is not the only one to find redemption in the 10 years since his car crash, writes The initial reaction to the great expose was as hilarious as it was sickening
How did you mark Fire Hydrant Day? Did you celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tiger Woods crashing his 4x4 into that Johnny pump at the end of his drive by playing that game of first trying to recount the women who came forward as mistresses and then attempting to match that number with the names of sponsors who subsequently dropped him?
Or did you simply sit down, recall the tawdry details, the recrimination, the ridicule and irrevocable humiliation and wonder what the fallen icon is doing now... before remembering that he is reigning Masters champion and is probably more admired than at any time during his career; and figuring that, hey, this world is great in allowing everyone their shot at redemption, providing you can carry a drive 310 yards, draw a five-iron off pine cones with backspin, perform a flopshot from a tight lie over water to a front pin and, of course, look good in red on a Sunday.
Or perhaps, you heard it was Nov 27, 2019, raised golf glove to visor and muttered: “It can’t be a whole decade since then, it just can’t. What happened to all of those years, all of those vows to get down to scratch, all of those Titleist Pro V1s?”
Whatever, like Woods, most of us can probably agree that so much has happened in the intervening period; not all of it good, not all of it memorable, but we are wildly different people because of it.
We can only hope that the sport feels able to say that to itself, too.
Golf ’s initial reaction to the great expose was as hilarious as it was sickening. Certain authoritarians actually dared to upbraid Woods. Their hypocrisy was just as unashamed as that presentation of Tiger as family man had been. This was double standards squared.
In the clamour to be pious, nobody leapt to the pulpit so readily as Billy Payne, then chairman of Augusta National. To re-read his words from the 2010 Masters, where Woods made his reappearance, is a surreal experience. “Tiger forgot to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility,” Payne bellowed. “It is not simply his conduct that is so egregious here; it is that he disappointed all of us and, most importantly, our kids and our grandkids.”
Yes, this was the Augusta that still would not allow female members. Yes, the Augusta where objectification of women as the lesser sex was almost a box to be ticked on the joining form.
Yes, the Augusta that worshipped Arnold
Palmer and cast him as the ultimate role model, despite knowing that when it came to philandering, “The King” made Woods resemble a four handicapper. The Green-jackets would have been aware of this, because the tales of Arnie’s “transgressions” were legendary.
How about this, from Bob Rosburg:
In their early days on the circuit, the pair would share rooms, and Rosburg claimed to have once received a call in their B&B at 2am. It was a man asking if Palmer was there.
“No, he isn’t,” Rosburg replied. “I damn well know he isn’t,” came the furious voice down the line, “because he’s out with my wife. So tell him when he’s back I’m going to come over and shoot off his balls.” “Before you do that,” Rosburg said, “can I just say my bed is the one nearest the window.”
Can we really link Woods’s staggering shame to the game at last starting to address its own “women issues”? Well, there can be little doubt the public were suddenly even more conscious of the rampant sexism, and it is surely not a complete coincidence that within a few years of the biggest scandal to hit the gentleman’s game that those gentlemen finally relented to hand females equal status at their most cherished bastions.
Augusta, the R&A, Muirfield … 10 years on and they all have mixed memberships and while much of this inclusivity remains tokenistic, those clubhouse doors are no longer bolted.
In fact, maybe Fire Hydrant Day should become even betterknown as the moment there was nowhere left for the entitled to hide any more.