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February 19, 2003
Golf Roundup
With Tiger Woods winning his first tournament since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery, talk about the PGA Tour is heating up. Plenty of people are looking forward to the Match Play Championship in a few weeks, the first tournament where Ernie Els (already the winner of 4 PGA events this season) and Woods will meet for the first time since last year. Though, because they're seeded one and two, Els and Woods wouldn't be able to meet before the finals. Down in Augusta, Georgia, city officials passed a new law designed more or less specifically to sabotage any protest that Martha Burk of the National Council Of Women's Organizations might mount in anticipation of this year's Masters. The new law stipulates that demonstrators give the city sheriff 20 days notice of any protest plans. The Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has already said they have doubts about the law, and so do I. Standing up for the constitutional rights of the membership of Augusta to determine their own membership policies is one thing, working to stifle simple protest is quite another -- no matter how distasteful I might find the protest. Back on the PGA Tour, everyone knows that Annika Sorenstam is about to make history by becoming the first woman in almost six decades to play in an event on the men's tour -- something that one LPGA rival of Sorenstam's isn't anxious to emulate: Australia's former world number one Karrie Webb says she is unlikely to join Sweden's Annika Sorenstam on the men's U.S. PGA Tour. But while Webb is content with not crossing over to the PGA, Brian Kontak, a regular on the Nationwide Tour, said it was time for him to cross over to the LPGA Tour and play in the U.S. Women's Open this July: Kontak told the Golf Channel: "I'm exploring the possibility. That's all I can say. But I'm dead serious about it." But I think Kontak is trying to make another point altogether. Sure, Sorenstam is using a sponsor's exemption to get into a PGA Tour event -- but it wouldn't surprise me if that got under the skin of someone who has spent time in Q-school trying to get a place on the PGA Tour. Then again, Kontak may inadvertently be making another point altogether. As far as I'm concerned, he has no place on the LPGA Tour, and it has nothing to do with gender equity. Why? Because the LPGA, like any other private membership organization, has a constitutional right to determine their membership rules without interference from anyone else. That goes for the LPGA, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, or even. . . Augusta National. I'm going to love to see how this plays out.
Eric
10:49 PM
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