Who knows, if we continue churning out tougher females, we might wind up crafting tougher males, as well, whereupon we'd all become tougher and dwell in general societal super-toughness.

After all, three males lost famously to one girl in the gruel of match-play golf this past week, and we heard from the three males none of the namby-pamby frailty of past generations.

We heard only a mature inner sturdiness absent in my generation and my father's and his father's, bygone eras when, to a male human, the clause "lost to a girl" promised a pungent cocktail of sting, embarrassment and derision.

Back then, we lived fraught with fret our preposterous schoolmates might think less of us for such things.

Those were feebler social times.

But after three decades of wise Title IX sustenance, three young men proved three grown men at the 80th U.S. Amateur Public Links in Lebanon, Ohio. These excellent golfers lost to 15-year-old quarterfinalist Michelle Wie and reacted with ...

Man, what a short game she has.

"Her short game, it's perfect to me," Will Claxton said by telephone from Alabama.

"Her short game is what really amazed me," C.D. Hockersmith said by telephone from Indiana.

"Really good short game," Jim Renner said by telephone from Massachusetts.

So it goes with the hardier males of the 21st century such as Claxton, 23, Auburn University, who fell to Wie in the round of 64, Hockersmith, 20, Ball State, round of 32, and Renner, 21, Johnson & Wales, round of 16.

The old world sees a gender novelty; they see a glistening short game.

Unthreatened by a biological crapshoot such as gender, having grown up alongside increasingly capable female athletes, they lead us headlong into a discussion of matters far more vital to happiness, such as the short game.

As in, while multitudes coo because Wie can drive it 300, her epitomizing of female strides lies in the short game.

It seems we're fashioning women with improved wrists and forearms.

Bully for us.

"To hear Will Claxton say he thought her short game was better than his, that was pretty remarkable," said Mike Griffin, Claxton's coach at Auburn. "That was kind of a defining moment."

Griffin hears with veteran ears and sees with veteran eyes. He has coached college golf for 32 seasons, and when he relocated from Troy State to Auburn in 1985, he found himself uncloaking hidden reality.

While many presumed driving distance separated golfing men from golfing women, many forgot that greater driving distance came with the offsetting price of lesser driving precision, Griffin said.

While many presumed the short game more egalitarian, well, no.

Griffin viewed the female college players of those darker ages and said: "They simply did not have enough strength to control the club head. That blew my mind. That was the No. 1 myth that I had going in.

"Within the last 20 years, that has changed, and it has changed drastically."

Meanwhile, in an evolutionary symbiosis, female forearms have abetted male fortitude.

So you have Hockersmith saying: "I guess it just never crossed my mind that if I lost it, I was losing to a girl. I think maybe times have changed a little bit."

Then: "Her game is just so mature for her age."

You have Renner saying, "It's not so much a 15-year-old girl; it's the point that it's a 15-year-old, you know?"

You have Claxton saying, "She's just incredible, man," and at another point of the conversation saying, "She's just incredible, man," and at still another: "She's just incredible, man."

"She's not your average 15-year-old," he stressed.

Claxton noted Wie's knack for ignoring everything not in her control. Hockersmith saw the uncommon self-motivation wherein a good shot breeds more good shots. Renner marveled at how her pre-shot process seemed to transpire identically each time, as if painstakingly calibrated.

All raved of her short game. Without being asked.

They went home later in the week to relive their rounds and grimace about their putting, in Claxton's and Renner's cases. Normal golf stuff.

Claxton's family: We're proud of you. Hockersmith's grandparents, who followed him around the course: We're proud of you. Various townspeople in Renner's hometown of Plainville: "Hey, we saw you on ESPN!"

Throwback teasing, echoes of that more fearful era? Renner said he heard minimal ribbing but said, "All their friends probably look up to Claxton and Hockersmith as golfers, so they know if she beat them, she must be pretty good."

Hockersmith said some friends teased him but with an ironic tone, sort of teasing him about teasing him, having done some Wie-witnessing themselves.

True, every crowd has its laggards in the Darwinian struggle for inner durability.