Just play the game.

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This post is long, and will veer off the Celtics--and basketball in 
general--a bit, before getting back to the point, so please be patient.

Some months back a golf player named Annika Sorenstam received an 
invitation to play in the Colonial golf tournament, which will be the first 
time in nearly six decades that a woman has played in such a game, 
heretofore a place for men only.  This elicited a number of comments from 
the golf players who normally show up for this event, few of them 
supportive.  Most recently, Vijay Singh said she "shouldn't be allowed" to 
play, and if he wound up on her team, he would refuse to play.  Then, he 
suddenly announced he wouldn't be playing in this event at all, withdrawing 
with a week left before it started.

The gist of comments from Singh and others was that she wasn't good enough 
to play their game.  So I decided to investigate.  This wasn't easy as all 
I know about golf is that Tiger guy normally wins like he was Larry bird at 
the three point competition, and Golf is supposed to be a civilized game 
with lots of rules dating back to when the ruined castles in Europe were in 
one piece and occupied.

Apparently, there are two ways your performance is measured overall for the 
men.   One is your overall performance--how well you played, with 
breakdowns hole by hole no less--over the last two years.  The other way is 
by how much money you made playing this year.  The men and women have two 
separate groups, and there is no official cross-gender ranking.

First, Annika Sorenstam's listing from the women's list.  After playing 5 
games, she is second on the women's money earned list, with 
$554,501.  (first place is held by Se Ri Pak who played 8 games, and has 
won $562,900).  She has finished in the top ten in every game she played 
this year.  Financially, as of the official list today, that would make her 
#55 on the men's list, just behind Brenden Pappas, who has made $556,832 
playing in 14 games with two finishes in the top ten.

It is interesting to note, that the official PGA site, which also houses 
the LPGA site, only gives extended stats on the men, and not the women.  So 
there is no other way to break down her professional game in comparison to 
the men.

Let's make an assumption that she is a consistent player, which her record 
would seem to indicate.  With a handful of exceptions,the men have played 
twice as many games as the women at this point.  Presuming she continues on 
her course, she will double her earnings after ten games, giving her just 
over $1,100,000.  That would put her in 20th place on the men's list, just 
after Scott Hoch, who has won $1,118,923 in 9 games.  Top 20 is pretty 
darned good in ANY league that lists over 200 players at any given time.

But she's "not good enough" to play with the men.

Does anyone expect her to win against the best the men have to 
offer?  Probably not.  But those who decry her as "not good enough" need to 
take a look at the few hundred guys on their list that by the same 
statistical measurement, aren't good enough either.  Sooner or later, the 
women will be playing alongside the men.  Golf is not a contact sport.  Nor 
is it a matter of competing against each other, the experts tell us, it's 
the golf player against the course.

So what's the big deal in letting women play?  The answer, supposedly is 
that the men are "out there earning a living", according to Mr. 
Singh.  Like it's no more than a hobby for the women.  If he's worried 
about some man that might get beat out because she "makes the cut", then 
tell the other guy to do better next time.  She's not asking for special 
treatment, so far as I know.  She's playing in the same golf park by the 
same rules.  There's no defense in golf, it's not like she can poke check 
the guy with her golf stick.

So, you're probably wondering what the basketball point is in all 
this.  Sooner or later, it will happen in the NBA.  There will be a WNBA 
player who is better than the rest of the women, who wants a challenge 
worthy of her talent, and will want to play in the NBA.  I recall recently 
the contract negotiation with the WNBA, where they were David Stern did not 
discriminate when he screwed their union as much as the NBA was.

We should watch, listen, and learn.  When that day comes--and I don't 
believe it's as far off as many people think--we'll have the hard lessons 
learned in how to be receptive to the idea.  By then, perhaps, Mr. Singh 
will have realized how foolish his behavior was at this time, and will be 
looking forward to an opportunity to play with ALL of his fellow golf players.