[CHICAGO: Howtown on the Make: puts down Veejay Singh's nasty comments about Annika Sorenstam play in the Colonial Open golf tourney - read some of the points here - but link to the original site for the complete essay]
Veejay Singh's comments about Annika Sorenstam's participating in this weekend's Colonial Open are embarassing and insulting to men everywhere.
Mr Singh, a "dark-complected" man of Sikh descent from the Fiji Islands, came out and said that he wouldn't play with Ms Sorenstam if he was paired with her on the course, saying she didn't "belong" on the tour.
The thing is, Ms Sorenstam has not treated her participation in this event in the annoying "Battle of the Sexes" way that so many of these events have become, for example when a young Billie Jean King played a half-dead Bobby Riggs and defeated him. As the greatest female golfer in the world, she simply wants to see how well she could perform against a field of men, trying to prove nothing to anybody but herself. In the same way a fat guy might try to run the Chicago Marathon. You know he's not going to win. The skinny Kenyans who have trained for this most of their life aren't insulted that fat guys are trying to horn in on their action. The fat guy is just trying to prove to himself that he could compete in the even without embarassing himself.
And Ms Sorenstam is no fat guy in a marathon. She's an accomplished, (apparently) amazing golfer who respects the sport and and performs in her own context like nobody before her.
Furthermore, the Colonial is an invitational. A few years ago, aging NFL quarterback and Superbowl MVP Mark Rypien participated in it. He wasn't taking the spot of a more competent golfer, and neither is Ms Sorrenstam. She was invited to participate as a curiousity, and people should be thankful that she's secure enough with herself to play, even though she's obviously just being used to generate money for the tour. I don't know much of anything about golf, but I know this: she won't perform well. If she's lucky, she'll finish in the top 75 in a field of 125. From what I've come to understand, it isn't how far you can drive the ball (remember, this is golf, not baseball), since after all, you're hitting this tiny little stationary thing with club. It's the fact that male bodies have a greater element of muscle memory and tighter control in swift movements: that's the nature of our bodies. There's nothing Ms Sorenstam can do about that. Nobody thinks she's going to make the cut (top 20) and go on to compete for the title. She just wants to play, and only a bully would try to keep her out.
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Mr Singh should have been much more sensitive about his comment concerning Ms Sorenstam, especially concerning the unique exclusiveness in the history of that "sport." As a minority and one of the premier golfers in the world, Mr Singh should welcome any and all inclusive steps taken by the world of golf.
UPDATE: 5/19/03 : Deborah Graham is a sports psychologist whose golf clients include Greg Chalmers, Phil Taturangi and Cameron Beckman and she has also worked with Mark Calcavecchia and Lee Janzen.
Graham says she would advise her clients to stick to what she has always told them. "Simply play the course," Graham said. "That's what we teach. It's not the other player. Play up to your abilities and then, whatever happens, happens."
But in this particular setting, where Sorenstam is drawing so much attention in her quest to test her game against the best male players, the standard formula for concentration may be a little more difficult to apply.
"It's going to take a tremendous amount of discipline," said Graham, who also said she wouldn't be surprised to learn of player withdrawals this week, with the whispered reason being "I don't want to get beat by a woman."
Graham said such a feeling is a real "fear factor" that most people can relate to, traced back to youth sports, "when young boys found it hard to be beaten in sports by girls."
Rotella said that Sorenstam's mission has been the talk of golf and that if she makes the cut, it's the golf story of the year. Like many golf fans, both casual and ardent, Rotella will be interested in watching how Sorenstam fares. But as a sports psychologist, he will also keep an eye on the male players to gauge their reaction. Losing to Sorenstam is not something any PGA Tour pro should even be thinking about, Rotella says. "Any guy who's got that much of a flaw in his head won't be on the tour very long."
Veejay Singh's comments about Annika Sorenstam's participating in this weekend's Colonial Open are embarassing and insulting to men everywhere.
