Forget Tiger Woods' Philandering: Golf has Bigger Problems With Women

by Mara Gay

OK, Tiger Woods is a dog. And it's safe to say that we all feel a little cleaner after dragging the golfer's name through the mud in the past six months, pouring over his salacious "sexts" and watching his Swedish wife's every move to see if she had dumped the serial philanderer.  (The despicable tidbit that got me going was the discovery that Tiger never bought his paramours anything but more than a Subway sandwich. Classy.)

Under attack from the media, and with his lucrative sponsorships on thin ice, Woods took a self-imposed hiatus from golf in the hopes of saving his marriage. If he hoped his absence would do something to discourage the media from covering the sordid details of his affairs, however, he was mistaken. More mistresses continued to emerge, and his voracious appetite for women continued to astound.

"Thanks to Vanity Fair, we're now learning that the wayward golf champ prefers quick and filthy sexual escapades over kept ladies and discreet apartments," the Los Angles Times wrote one day in March.

And even by April, when he returned to golf to reclaim his turf, the news was not focused on the sport that made him great, but the affairs that made him infamous.

Which is a shame. Because while it's clear Tiger has a voracious appetite for women, it's not as clear that he is a misogynist.

And that's more than can be said for the sport of golf. And last week, when Woods returned to the game, he did it at Augusta National Golf Course, the prestigious course that hosts the Master's Tournament every year but has never had a female member. That little detail, however, seemed to have been lost among the media, who were far busier reporting on whether or not his wife Elin would attend the match (she didn't) and the former mistresses that might be cheering him on instead ("Tiger Woods Gets Breast Wishes From His Jilted Porn Star Joslyn James," one Daily News headline read). I guess that was more fun, and less work to write about.

Only Michel Martin, at NPR, seemed to notice something was amiss. "As for offensive, which is more offensive?" she asked. "Tiger's running around on his wife, activists raising questions? Or, a major American enterprise acting as if half the population does not exist?"

For most in the media, however, that kind of story didn't seem to hold much interest.

The irony cannot be missed. Tiger is the world's greatest golfer, but he is also the first black American to cross one of the most intractable color lines in one of the whitest sports in the world without making so much as an "amen" to commemorate his singular achievement.

The whole Tiger Woods affair, so-to-speak, could have been a great moment to take a hard look at sexism in sports.

Even as the media hyperventilated over whether or not Tiger had taken enough time off from the sport to recover from his sex addiction, for example, the South African runner Caster Semenya was still barred from the track pending a decision on whether or not she's woman enough to compete with other females.

Tiger's scandal remained a tabloid free-for-all, and nothing more.

During Tiger's hibernation this winter, the winter Olympics took place in Vancouver, where another athlete remained on the sidelines. 25-year-old Lindsey Van holds the record for the longest ski-jump ever recorded, but the International Olympic Committee does not allow women to compete in the event. This year, Van stayed home.

IOC member Gian Franco Kasper explained the policy in 2005: ski jumping, he said, "seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."

It doesn't look like we're in for a change anytime soon. Just this week, ABC News asked at least one very important question regarding the Woods ordeal: "Is Tiger's Marriage on the Line Over Nike Ad?" they asked.

The answer to that very important question remains to be seen. But one thing, however, is very clear: In the middle of the Tiger scandal, an elephant for the ages.

photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/misspixels/

Mara Gay contributes to AOL news and previously worked for The Atlantic.  Her stories have appeared in The Washington Post and The Root.  She lives in New York.