Why I Root for Tiger Woods or, Golf and Independent Schools

I don’t play golf, but I watch it on TV. Sounds like the line about a doctor but it describes my interest in the sport. While I do not play because I find golf to be overly time consuming and environmentally unfriendly, I watch golf for one reason: to watch Tiger Woods and to hope that every time he plays, he wins. His smile and grace are quick and natural. In commercials, his ability is already legendary as he juggles a golf ball on his club like Pele or makes Manhattan a makeable par five. He has opened golf as a possibility to millions who previously perceived it as someone else’s protected game, played on manicured grass, behind formidable walls. I root for his victories and his dominance over the world of golf because he is the best, but I also cheer him because he is a person of color redefining a sport that previously held little room or respect for someone like him.

Tiger’s Exploits

Before that summer of 2000 he had won many tournaments, including the Masters and the PGA Championship, but the Majors (No, I have not read Feinstein’s book.) are the ones that the pros are driven to win and Tiger clearly desires to win them to secure his place in the history of golf and so that summer was magnificent for him, and satisfying for me.

At the US Open at Pebble Beach, he was the only player to finish under par, breaking numerous records including an almost century old mark of number of strokes as a winning margin in a Major. Dressed in red and black, shooting for the records of Nicklaus and others, he was not playing merely to win but to make his stamp on the sport a permanent one. He was clearly the best player and he seemed bent on making himself better. How could you not appreciate the clip of him hitting golf balls before 6:00 a.m. on the day of a round, deliberately spitting before he drove another ball into the invisibility of a “blue-black morning.”

Then there was the British Open at St. Andrew’s. The tournament that completed Tiger as the youngest golfer to win the Grand Slam and he did it at St. Andrew’s the year that Nicklaus in a sense retired, the transference of mastery apparent to all. Again, he was dominant, breaking the record for the course, winning by a margin unheard of in the modern era. He was smart and patient and he hit shots that other pros could not. At the end of the British Open, he was the reigning Champion of three of the four Grand Slam events and held scoring records for three of the four as well. However he was at his best, walking off the green at 18, his hand on David Duvall’s shoulder, gracious as well as invincible.

Then he won again, this time the PGA. And then again, the Masters and he held all four Major titles - the “TigerSlam” - a new term for the ancient game. He is the best now and may well be the best ever; time will tell.

Tiger and Golf

However, I also cheer for him because he is forced to represent himself as a person of color in a manner that no other golfer has ever had to, in a sport that embodies privilege and wealth; only polo goes farther. Peete and Elder, Chi Chi and Trevino, they were the pioneers, and Woods acknowledges them as such, but they never had the focus of America on them the way Tiger currently does, nor did they seem to elicit the same levels of response as he does, supreme adoration from some and complete disdain from others. He is golf’s Hank Aaron.

Fuzzy Zoeller’s initial reaction to his first Master’s win, a racist comment regarding the defending Champion’s dinner was a peek into golf’s surprise and consternation about Tiger’s coming. And it continues past the foolish remark of one ignorant man. I know people who will not watch a tournament that he is winning or will openly root for any white player that might beat him. In Boston the Monday after the British Open, I heard a radio talk show host ask if Tiger’s present and future dominance was possibly “bad for golf.” Was the same question ever asked of Hogan or Palmer or Nicklaus? Then there was the girl friend: “Isn’t she white?” A quick question to raise the taboo.

How will the world of Golf react if a man who is descended of African-American, American-Indian and Southeast-Asian heritage continues to rewrite its record book. What will be the response at American country clubs that serve as the institutions primarily associated with golf? Are folks who look like Tiger playing at your local country club and if so, how many? Will country clubs go beyond a hasty scramble to get an infinitesimal representation of folks of color or Jews in their membership to ease their consciences or to reduce the chance of a lawsuit? Could Earl Woods get his family into your local country club if he was not Tiger Woods’ father? Could he even though he is?

Independent Schools, golf clubs and

“The Holy Trinity”

What does this have to do with Independent Schools? What are the connections of our schools to Golf and those country clubs that now witness the change that Tiger brings? Are there responsibilities to examine and to change the “private” school world.

In both “club” and Independent School environments, exclusion and elitism are in the institutional water, created by traditions and constituencies that can seem difficult to discuss let alone to confront. Like country clubs, Independent Schools operate within a framework, created by history and tradition that is exclusive and privileged. Both are places that reward wealth, family name and legacy in an exclusionary admission process that takes into account much more than ability or inclination to pay the “fees.” In both institutions, the photos, portraits and plaques that adorn hallways and buildings honor a past membership/alumni(ae) that is almost always racially and culturally monolithic - white faces, usually male peer down form dark wood frames. In these “private” clubs and schools, race, religion, gender, class and sexual orientation are social realities not merely biological or cultural differences and these realities are complicated by the powerful effect of legacies and traditions that continue an institution’s past into its present.

In our schools, like the private membership of a club, most of us who are "white" are comfortable with those photographs, traditions, prizes and buildings named after distinguished alumni, faculty or trustees since it is our own culture that is being revered and celebrated. Our membership in the “club” becomes a source of pride as well as comfort. However, because of this, we often fail to question if the value of honoring the school’s past is worth the cost of its impact. The challenge is finding ways to preserve the traditions that benefit a school while we identify and change those that make the school exclusionary. Some traditions are difficult to change because they are simultaneously beneficial and troubling to the school but they must be examined, altered and sometimes eliminated to expel any doubt as to what the school stands for.

In Professional Golf the defending Champion’s right to choose the Masters dinner should remain, while the right for others, who are more comfortable at Augusta because of race, age or culture, to question or denigrate the meal because it represents difference must go. Likewise, in our schools, the traditional practices and policies that enhance the uniqueness of a school must be retained, but only if space in the assemblies, hallways, courses and ceremonies of the school is created for new traditions that display a commitment to diversity and multiculturalism.

Frequently, membership to one institution, “club” or school, is the companion piece to membership at the other. What does this tell us about both institutions?

When I was growing up in northern Westchester County, the “Holy Trinity” referred to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, The Bedford Golf and Tennis Club and The Rippowam School. For my brothers and myself, all three institutions were places of friends and family and, to be honest, I enjoyed my time at all three. However, these were also places that were exclusive, wealthy and privileged, and so anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist in culture, in attitude, and, undoubtedly, in the practices of admission. The comfort and security that the school, the country club, and the church, provided to my family, as well as to many other families, surely depended more upon who was kept out of these institutions than who was admitted to them.

Discussing admission at an Independent School is not merely a philosophical issue concerning some moral imperative to be more “welcoming.” It is a practical necessity, since the demographics of America are rapidly changing. Attention to admissions is opportunity as well as responsibility.

Independent Schools that are slow to make their schools more attractive and accessible to folks new to Independent Schools, an increasingly larger group in “the pool,” risk being judged as antiquated, regressive or worse. If “membership” seems the inherited or exclusive right of a certain few then the “Country Day“ schools and the “Prep” schools, like country clubs, could become anachronistic and unappealing bastions of an increasingly narrow and unpopular sentiment. Admissions and the publications that attend the process offer every Independent School the opportunity of “continuous reinvention” and the vitality of an Independent Schools five, ten or twenty-five years from now depends upon attention paid to diversity now. Jewish students, students of color, Gay and lesbian students currently at our schools will become the parents and trustees and benefactors of the next generation of Independent School students. Where will they send their children to school?

Final Thoughts on Independent Schools and tiger

Independent Schools have been places that inflicted a heavy price on those students and their families courageous enough to withstand the lumps and bruises that an ignorant and insensitive school culture can dole out. Like Tiger’s win at the Masters, when at twenty-two he “lapped the field” but then was forced to deal with the insensitive racist comments of Fuzzy Zoeller that lingered without apology, a successful completion of an Independent School career can come at a cost for those students who feel outside of the school culture. The discomfort and isolation for Jewish students or for faculty of color or for a student adhering to the demanding fasting of Ramadan or for the teacher who is unsure of how her lesbian orientation will impact her role or for the parent who feels inferior because he cannot take his child “... to Steamboat for the break” remain in Independent Schools today and this pain and alienation cannot be excused as prices to be paid for inclusion in our schools.

We must remember that, as with a country club, "white" students (and faculty) often find an extension of their race, religion, culture and, sometimes, even their own family in an Independent School, while students and faculty of color usually give up something by coming to an Independent School, whether it be language, neighborhood or family. For these students and faculty, as well as parents, their experience in an Independent School community, can feel peripheral and isolated because the culture and ethos of the school can unconsciously but consistently separate them from the school. Ironically, they are simultaneously being told, implicitly and explicitly, to learn from and to appreciate the Independent School experience that they are “fortunate” to be a part of but which causes them suffering.

The challenge to any Independent School that intends to be excellent, both now and after Tiger Woods retires, is to establish a new framework that achieves a balance between existing traditions that preserve history and progressive policies that promote inclusion and diversity. It is also the obligation and responsibility of an Independent School to thoroughly examine issues pertaining to race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and class and how they impact the academic, social, athletic and artistic realms of the school.

For some students, faculty and parents, this exploration of diversity must occur so that they can honestly examine their privilege and the “blindspots” as well as the benefits that come with their race and wealth. While the privilege may not be a cause for shame, it is most certainly a cause for increased responsibility and awareness.

For other students, teachers and parents, new to Independent Schools, a continuous examination of issues of diversity must occur because their families do not belong to the clubs, or go on the vacations or drive the SUV’s that they see and hear about. It is not enough to be asked to the table if the meal is not served to all. And it is not enough to be asked to choose the meal if others at the table question the different flavors of the food.

Issues of diversity must be explored so that all members of the school community feel the same degree of access to and representation in the spoken and unspoken curriculum of their school. It is the school’s ongoing responsibility to ask questions, to take risks and to embrace change; it can be uncomfortable but it is the responsibility of our schools to undertake such growth as the effort and discomfort ultimately make for more inclusive and more admirable schools.

The summer of 2000 I watched golf and thought about Independent Schools. When I watch golf again, it will be to cheer Tiger on and to hope for more of the change and awareness that his spectacular play brings to golf and the country clubs that revolve around the sport. Hopefully, Independent Schools can continue to pursue awareness and change without needing a Tiger Woods; perhaps we can collectively bring similar focus to issues of diversity and the need for true inclusion at our schools.

Oh, and when Tiger isn’t playing, I cheer for Notah Begay; in 2000, he had a pretty good summer too.

Alden Mauck – 2000

alden_mauck@nobles.edu