Why not sing her praises?
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
How many times, you wonder, did somebody question with pejorative and prejudice whether the young man of Indian ancestry from Fiji belonged in the exclusive precincts to which he sought entry?
It can't have been easy for Vijay Singh to pry open the gates of country club courses in the United States and Europe or to endure slights and discrimination in pursuit of his career.
How thick his skin must have been to put up with what it took to make a living on fringe tours in South Africa, Morocco and Borneo?
We glimpsed some of the frustrations that Singh had bottled up in a 20-year career when, after winning the 2000 Masters, he was heard to declare, "Kiss my ..., everybody!"
With everything he has been through, you would have thought Singh would have been about the last guy on the PGA Tour complaining about Annika Sorenstam's plans to play in next week's Colonial.
Yet, before yesterday's two-day-old effort at spin control, the usually taciturn Singh had voiced the strongest objections, telling the Associated Press he'd refuse to play with Sorenstam. "We have our tour for men and they have their tour," he said. "She's taking a spot from someone in the field."
Before backpedaling, Singh also said: "I hope she misses the cut. Why? Because she doesn't belong out there."
In tone and message it wasn't much different from baseball commissioner Keenesaw Mountain Landis who, when asked in the 1940s about blacks playing in the major leagues, said: "(They) have their own (Negro) league, let them stay in it."
When the sponsor of the Southern Farm Bureau Classic awards one of its exemptions to a pro from Pecan Creek, Miss., or a college hotshot, nobody squawks.
When the Sony Open grants exemptions to players from the Japan or Asia tours, rarely is there a discouraging word. And, when quarterback Mark Rypien received an exemption to play in the Kemper Open a while back and shot 91, Singh didn't make a peep.
So, if Sorenstam, the most accomplished LPGA Tour player, wants to make a one week detour, stepping to the back tees to test herself against the best in the world and somebody gives her one of the eight exemptions, where's the harm?
Oddsmakers established Sorenstam at 3-1 against making the cut at the Colonial, so where's the threat?
Given all he has been through, you'd think Singh would be an opponent of intolerance and exclusion instead of a vocal proponent.
