They Call Him Mr.Woods

Thunderous grace and a smooth approach only begin to tell the story.

by Herb Boyd

Tiger WoodsA note of advice here for future pioneers: when you push open a door, you walk softly through it...The only point that I have tried to make is that a black man can play golf just as well as a white man and be just as much a gentleman on the golf course. The simple fact of my playing, and playing well, was all the point I needed to make. I have never gone into a place and bad-mouthed the tournament and the sponsors or made inflammatory statements to the press if I was given a fair chance to play golf. It’s only when they start stacking the deck against me that I open my mouth.”
—Charlie Sifford, the first black PGA Golfer

Whether Tiger Woods ever read these words or not, he seems to have followed this pioneering golfer’s advice to the tee, so to speak. Indisputably, Tiger has pushed opened a number of doors, some of them wide enough to allow a flood of young aspiring golfers, each of them seeking to emulate his or her hero’s accomplishments. And with ten major grand slam tournaments to his credit before his thirtieth birthday (he turns 30 on December 30), no further proof is needed that a black man (or Cablinasian, as he once defined his mixed ancestry) can play as well as a white one with gentlemanly grace and aplomb.

Like Sifford, Tiger has done most of his talking with his clubs. Ever since he burst on the scene as a pro in 1996, Tiger has been in the spotlight, and quite deservedly. Waving his driver like a magic wand, all he had to do was sign up for a tournament and his coronation was secure, the title was his. Over nearly a decade now Tiger has been a virtual lord of the links, compiling figures that guarantee him a sinecure in golf’s pantheon. But has his prominence and dominance brought about any significant changes in golf as it relates to race relations?

Tiger’s success, particularly in a white preserve like golf, was anticipated by his father. “I see Tiger’s role in golf over the next twenty years as similar to that of the first minority President of the United States,” Earl Woods wrote in his book Playing Through (HarperCollins, 1998). “Tiger is going to be expected to do things that nobody before him was expected to do in that capacity. And he is going to be held to a much higher standard than others before him, like Arnold (Palmer) or Jack Nicklaus.”

There has been an appreciable increase in the number of African American golfers tramping behind this new Pied Piper on the greens. Over the last decade, according to the National Golf Federation, the number of black golfers has doubled, reaching nearly a million active participants. It is hard not to include the Tiger factor in this recent explosion. This growth is also confirmed by the Multi Cultural Golf Association of America that reports a dramatic expansion of junior golf programs in the country.

He has created his own programs, junior golf team, and foundation to advance the increase of minorities in golf. Central to this endeavor is The Tiger Woods Foundation, whose mission is mainly to empower young people who live in urban environments and are underserved in their pursuits. Through the foundation’s In The City Clinics, players are selected to compete for Tiger’s Junior Golf Team. Not surprisingly, the majority of the participants are young Latinos and African Americans. The foundation has also partnered with Target to provide scholarships through its Start Something program for teenagers. This process should give the young golfers the nurturing they need, and not just a one-time exposure that leaves them wanting and less than prepared to raise their game.

A very active example of Tiger’s outreach is a kind of Midnight Golf program administered by the Northwest Community Program in Detroit, headed by Ron Lockett. “There’s no doubt about Tiger’s influence around here,” said Lockett, the CEO and executive director of the program. “Our program here is modeled after Midnight Basketball that was so popular several years ago. I think we’ve ushered over 200 children through a program that combines fundamental academic and coping skills with golf, which is about 30 percent of their activity.”

But since 1997 no company has been as actively engaged in Tiger’s life as Nike. While Kel Devlin, global sports marketing Director of Nike Golf, said it is against the company’s policy to disclose the nature of contracts, current or past, with their athletes, he did speak extensively about Tiger’s lure and charisma, how he has changed the sport, and, most significantly, his financial impact on the Nike brand.

Devlin said that an athlete like Tiger comes along about once every generation, and that Nike was fortunate to get him at a time when others might have been a little reluctant. “Phil Knight (Nike’s Founder and CEO) knew Tiger was the right person to sign and there were a number of people who were second guessing the move,” he noted. “A lot of folks were wondering why Nike would pay a golfer the kind of money that he reportedly received. It set a new standard and I think it’s been an incredibly good deal for both sides.

“But more than anything what we have with Tiger is a partnership,” Devlin stressed. “You have to understand that like Michael Jordan, Tiger transcends the sport, and from what I can gather he’ll probably be in the limelight for two decades or more. And this will be good for our business where 50 percent of our growth is going to come from outside the U.S. You see, Tiger really has made golf cool. This wasn’t the case when I was Tiger’s age. He’s also attracting different types of athletes to golf. Look at college golf now. You’re seeing a lot more athletic people coming into the sport, who otherwise might have been playing basketball, football or baseball. Over the next several years, the average PGA tour player will be bigger and stronger. Tiger has completely changed the perception of the sport.”

What is unlikely to fade anytime soon is Tiger’s charisma. When you’re as gifted, squeaky clean, good looking, and multi-ethnic as Tiger is, what company wouldn’t fork over oodles of cash to get an endorsement that will increase its sales? Even so, there are detractors who contend that while his lack of commitment to various civil and human rights causes may earn him more commercial possibilities, it has not endeared him with larger numbers of marginalized people, particularly that coterie of activists who, like golfer Calvin Peete, believes Tiger’s indecisiveness on his identity is a problem. Peete may be right, but it could have more to do with Tiger falling into a racial category akin to meridians as defined by the Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer; that is, a mixture of ethnicities that doesn’t pigeon-hole and limit opportunities in a generally racist society. When Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees received a death threat for interracial dating, a young lady asked was it for dating a white woman or a black woman, given his mixed ancestry. If the one-drop theory still applies then Jeter, along with Mariah Carey, Vin Diesel, The Rock, Senator Barack Obama, and a host of others of mixed ancestry, is black practically everywhere in America, no matter what they say.

Of late, Tiger has not been saying that much about race and color (unless his blond dyed coif is a signal), nor has he muttered a single political word or comment. This reticence or reluctance to address social and political issues is reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s stance. Tiger is hardly alone among black athletes who have failed to live up to the outspoken political views of Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Jim Brown, John Carlos, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Tommie Smith of the 1960s; his singular achievements places him in the spotlight or the crosshairs– and everything he does or doesn’t do is significantly magnified. Moreover, the above-mentioned athletes demonstrated their opposition to the war in Vietnam, within a context of a larger movement.

Not since the prime of Jack Nicklaus and the glory days of Arnold Palmer has there been such an excitement in golf. Along with giving the sport a financial boost, he has also raised the level of play around him. When some of the better players actually beat Tiger, they can proudly boast they have beaten the best, which should give them the needed inspiration to forge ahead to the next tournament. Unfortunately, these aspirants can expect a highly focused, unruffled Tiger waiting at the tee. In fact, the only thing that seems to ruffle Tiger is when one of his drives falls short of the fairway, or one of his putts rims the cup. His own success has raised the bar so high that he’s left to compete against himself, rather than against other contenders on the course. He possesses a Buddhist-like serenity most of the time, remaining calm while a gaggle of fans clamor for his autograph or scream his name from the gallery. In some interviews, Tiger has confessed that his mother instilled him with patience and tenacity. From his father he learned mental toughness and how not to be distracted by noise or any other interference while on the golf course.

If he continues the way he has—and in golf the top players are like vintage wine they tend to get better as they age—he’s sure to be golf’s first billionaire, the endorsements included. When you are known by one name in America, have your own web site and your own golf video game, you know you’ve arrived. But in the long run, Tiger’s legacy won’t be measured by the money he makes or video games. As he has often said, there’s only one mission, and it transcends money and race: that’s to be the best golfer that ever lived. And if that means he’ll have to win more than 82 PGA tournaments to best Slammin’ Sammy Snead, well, folks, Tiger is more than half way there.