Honest to god, I hope Annika Sorenstam wins the Colonial just to shut Vijay Singh’s fucking mouth. Personally, I don’t care that she’s the first women in decades to play on a PGA tour event. If she can do it, let her do it (that said, I don’t think she can do it simply because of the disparity in driving distances between men and women). But by all means, let her compete. What do all of these golfer’s have to be afraid of? Being beaten by a girl? I think Phil Taylor summed it up well:
Attitudes like the one demonstrated by Singh — who is not the only male golfer opposed to Sorenstam’s entry, just the most vocal — are especially unfortunate because you would expect athletes, even more than the rest of us, to welcome all comers. Sports are the closest thing we have to a meritocracy in America — if you’re good enough, you will succeed; and if you’re not, you will be pushed out by someone who is. Athletes talk all the time about seeking and accepting challenges, about wanting to play and measure themselves against the best in their sport. It shouldn’t be hard for them to understand that that’s exactly what Sorenstam is doing. The male golfers in the tournament should applaud her for that — and then go out and try to beat her, just as they would another man.
As I’m writing this, she’s -1 through nine holes. CNNSI has an auto-updating scorecard is you want to keep track of her progress.
I hope she misses the cut for various reasons…two of them being this:
1. They have the LPGA. Go play there.
2. She DID NOT qualify to play. Had she done that, maybe I would have a different opinion.
Left by Aristotle on May 22nd, 2003
[answered in e-mail, which is the appropriate place for questions such as these]
Left by Aristotle on May 22nd, 2003
I hope that Annika goes far, although I think she was lagging behind and won’t make it. However, I have mixed reactions to her playing with the men. As a woman, I want women to take over the world of sports too, but the support Annika is getting was not given to women who wanted to be in the NBA or NFL or play baseball. I mean, the NHL got women players without this much hype. I think that it’s not fair to her sisters in sports for her to be able to do this, especially without officially making the cut. If women basketball players *must* stay in the WNBA, then I think it should be the same for women golfers.
But being that she’s in there, I want her to do well and show Vijay Singh that she can play…
Left by Angel on May 23rd, 2003
Women basketbally players only have to stay in the WNBA because they’re way too bad for the NBA. There are no rules against them playing there…same with the NFL, MLB, NHL and most other top tier sports leagues.
Left by Scott on May 24th, 2003