BACK WHEN THE COURSE WAS GREEN AND ALL THE PLAYERS WERE WHITE

1997, it seems so far away, and then again, it seems like yesterday. The Masters golf tournament, the premier professional golf tournament actually turns 10 this year, 10AT to be accurate, 10 years after Tiger.

Played each year at the Augusta country club, the venue is arguably the last bastion of open golf racism and served to symbolize all that was wrong with the old south. Only Augusta held onto its racist policies much longer than anywhere. Blacks (and women) were not allowed to join, or play. So nothing gave the country more pleasure than seeing one Tiger Woods come into Augusta and win year after year. 1997 marked the first time Mr. Woods won the tournament, and slipped on the traditional green champions jacket.

Each year the winner of the tournament determines the menu for the yearly champions dinner held the following year. All previous champions are invited to break bread, and relive old times in a traditional ceremony of past champions only. Nothing illustrates the feelings and sentiment of the old guard of golfers than Fuzzy Zoeller's remarks when asked what he thought Tiger would put on next years menu. He replied "I don't know, I just hope it is not fried chicken."

Although innocent in nature, Mr. Zoeller's remark (and many of his oft quoted remarks), meant only to elicit humor, underscored the resentment at not only the multi-racial Mr. Woods victory, but the prospect of many of his future anticipated victories. His talents scared many of the old golfing guard, and rightly so. He is a virtuoso with a golf club in his very, very talented hands.

What many fans did not understand at the times were the galleries comments of racial slurs and epithets while Mr. Woods worked the golf courses he played during his rookie year. He never went public in these regards, preferring to remain a class act, a predisposition passed down from a tough, Green Beret father. The times have changed (thankfully), and the Masters lives on. And all those of a non-white heritage have one more hero to look up to, one Tiger Woods, a young man who took the baton passed down to him from all those who stood before him, and carved his way around the lush grounds that is the Augusta country club.