----- Original Message -----
From: "Snoopy the Celtics Beagle" <snoopy@celticsbeagle.net>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Cc: <celticsstuffgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 1:13 PM
Subject: Just play the game.
> 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.