Woods Remains Silent Minority

The question was about a quote, his quote.

Tiger Woods said it seven years ago, before greatness, when he tried to make money from being a minority, when the color of his skin was as valuable as his swing.

He said it while explaining the meaning of a Nike ad campaign that claimed he would change the world.

He said it, and the Buffalo News printed it, and the writer saved it, and now part of it was being read back to him Tuesday as he sat among pink azaleas and green jackets inside a national golf institution that will not allow female members.

“The message is that there are still clubs practicing denial of membership and play. Not just against minorities, but also to women, to Jews ... so it’s just saying a minority finally has a chance to make an impact, and are you ready for it?”

The questioner wanted to know: Is Woods as passionate about diversity today as he was back then?

“I am,” Woods said.

Long silence.

The questioner, noting the two-word answer, observed that Woods didn’t really sound very passionate.

“Probably that’s just your opinion,” Woods said.

Another long silence.

So unsettling, the world’s most influential athlete offering so little.

So quiet, you could have heard a backbone drop.

Given another opportunity to make that larger impact Tuesday, Tiger Woods again took a mulligan.

Upon his arrival at what may be the most socially charged sports event in his career -- an old Nike commercial come to life -- Woods again refused to come out of his sweater vest.

Outside the gates of the Masters tournament this week, there will be loud protests and demonstrations against Augusta National’s refusal to allow female members.

Inside, the one man who could quiet everyone shrugs.

“Everyone here knows my opinion,” Woods said. “Should [women] become members or should they be members? Yes. But, you know, I’m ... I don’t really have a vote in how they run this golf course, and this club.”

Some would argue that, in the current climate, Woods has the only vote.

He is trying to become the first golfer to win the Masters three consecutive years. Nobody here is as powerful. Nobody here is as popular.

His strength has influenced Augusta National to change its course layout. His fame has affected its policies on crowd control.

It’s easy for Hootie Johnson, Augusta’s boss man, to insult such equality activists as Martha Burk. It wouldn’t be so easy for him to ignore a green-jacketed one like Tiger Woods.

“But I think even Jack [Nicklaus] and Arnold [Palmer], being members, I don’t think they have as much say around here as people think,” claimed Woods, who is not a member.

Both men will speak today. Here’s hoping they say more than Woods, who seemingly has a social conscience only when it’s interest bearing or tax deductible.

When other minority golfers need help breaking through the tour curtain with sponsorships and sponsor’s exemptions, Woods is invisible.

When disabled former Stanford teammate Casey Martin needed help in his battle to use a golf cart, Woods was silent.

Not every great athlete can be an Arthur Ashe or Muhammad Ali or Billie Jean King.

But wouldn’t it be nice if the greatest ones occasionally used their platforms to effect changes within their sports that had nothing to do with them? You know, do something just because it was right?

“Sometimes,” Woods said, “just because a person is in the limelight, they all of a sudden have -- people have had this need for them -- to have a voice and an opinion and a ‘where you stand’ on certain issues.

“And some people choose not to.”

Most of the golfers interviewed so far here have chosen not to. Davis Love III has offered no comments. Phil Mickelson says, “I’m not going to get into that.”

At least Ernie Els directly addressed the issue, saying, “For us to go to the members of Augusta National Golf Club telling them, ‘Listen, you’ve got to let a lady member in here,’ it’s not for us to say. It’s a private club. And that’s probably the bottom line, isn’t it?”

The argument here is that, during the only week it matters, Augusta National is the world’s largest public club, a national treasure that should abide by national standards if it wants to remain that way.

Remember, the Masters is not a PGA Tour event, and could never be a PGA Tour event, because the PGA Tour refuses to hold tournaments on courses that discriminate.

Woods could say that. No matter what other golfers say, Woods’ voice is still the loudest one here. Not because he is a minority, but because he is better than everyone else.

And because that’s what he sold us.

He was asked whether he placed women in the same category as minorities.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “Never looked at it that way.”

Never looked at it that way? What about that quote from seven years ago? He believed it back then, didn’t he? Or was he just trying to sell some more shirts?

Before this week, this year’s biggest tour controversy involved Mickelson claiming that Woods used inferior equipment.

Turns out, of course, that Mickelson was right. The world’s best golfer is attacking the Masters with woods of Teflon and irons of jelly.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.