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TIGER AND THE USA
by Major Mark Smith,
Retired
I was watching Tiger
Woods playing in the PGA
Championship and my mind drifted back to his father
Earl, a Special Forces Soldier.When Tiger was coming
to Thailand to play the media and politicians began a
drumbeat about making him a Thai citizen. This was
based on his mother being Thai. They found out that
Tiger was very proud of his mother but he was one
hundred percent American.
When I took over command of Special Forces
Detachment-Korea stories abounded about Tiger and how
he would someday be a champion. They spoke of a boy
who revered his father and loved golf. Never being a
golfer, my total connection to the sport was shagging
balls a couple times for pocket change in California.
I was and remain a baseball guy. But Earl and Tiger
made a whole lot of men in Special Forces fans of
watching Tiger play golf.
As I watched the PGA Championship, I thought how
much Tiger personifies America, as it should be. His
father was Black and his mother a Thai but Tiger is
America personified, as it should be. He seems to
understand that the only person who can defeat Tiger
Woods on any golf course on any given day is Tiger
himself. It is the nation Earl served and the one
Tiger obviously loves that does not seem to get it at
times. If Tiger cared what the rest of the world
thought, he would have never stepped on the course at
Augusta. After all, there was a time when his lineage
would have denied him that right. But young Tiger knew
only Tiger could beat Tiger on any course on the face
of the earth. People have colluded to fashion courses
strictly to defeat Tiger because they wanted to give
the other guys a chance. But that little boy who
played golf in Korea understood that while the rest of
the world colluded to beat him, only he could beat
Tiger Woods.
Racially, morally, ethically, and professionally,
America and her Army can learn much from Tiger and
Earl. Only Tiger can defeat Tiger and only America can
defeat itself.
ZIPPO
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