So Tiger Woods won a golf tournament today–the Buick Invitational, for the fourth straight year–and off we go. The win figures to launch the interminable golf season back into its comfort zone of discussing whether Woods will win the Grand Slam as well as what he really thinks of that loudmouth Rory Sabbatini.

And that means not talking anymore, however grudgingly, about the lynching comment made by the Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman a few weeks ago.

The Buick, held in San Diego, was the media’s first, perhaps last, opportunity, to ask Tiger in person about Tilghman’s comment–she said, during a broadcast, that the only way younger players were going to be able to win with Woods around would be to “lynch him in a back alley.”

Not that Woods ever said much about it. Employing what many see as a Michael Jordanesque abhorrence of anything too real and/or not easily packaged, Woods said as little to nothing as he could about the incident, dismissing it as a regrettable slip of the tongue.

It’s not, of course. The word “lynch” means something and for someone to use it in a such a flip manner, in reference to winning golf tournaments, shows a dangerous, and one fears, pervasive level of ignorance, like using “holocaust” to describe a soccer defeat. “Lynch” is not some museum piece, like looking back at the Spanish Inquisition–nooses have once again become the symbol du jour of intimidation, not only in the deep south, but here in our own Port of Long Beach, where workers have complained they’ve seen nooses displayed in and on trucks as well as on T-shirts.

Given that, some have criticized Woods for not speaking out earlier and more forcefully. NFL immortal Jim Brown said Woods “should have come out right away. Instead, he waited until it was politically correct.”

Woods–born in Long Beach and who played much of his early golf in and around Long Beach–has said that he doesn’t have to comment on societal issues, he is doing his best to change things for the better through his kids foundation. That’s great and all, except that every reserve quarterback and designated hitter has a kids foundation.

So it appears we just have another sheltered athlete who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the real world. Yeah, no. I was just re-reading Gary Smith’s outstanding 1996 Sports Illustrated piece about Woods–”The Chosen One”– in which his father, Earl, choking back tears of pride says that Tiger will “transcend this game … and bring to the world … a humanitarianism … which has never been known before.”

Later in the piece, Tiger himself talks about having his mind enlightend about race, not only from stares on the golf course, but from taking classes on race on Stanford: “What I realized is that even though I’m mathematically Asian–if anything–if you have one drop of black blood in the United States, you’re black. And how important it is for this country to talk about this subject … You can’t say something like that in a polite way. Golf has shied away from this for too long.”

You know, I do think you can say something like that in a polite way. Tiger seems like an exceedingly decent and nice fellow. All he’d have to say is something like: “A friend of mine used an unfortunate choice of words out of ignorance. The fact is that word carries with it a weight and history of violence, death and intimidation that has been used to keep a segment of American citizens afraid for decades. While I know my friend didn’t mean to hurt anyone, the fact that she, like so many Americans are unaware of that word means, what it connotes, tells us how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. I invite you to look up lynching and talk about it with your kids. And, for the record, Rory Sabbatini is a tool.”

See, no one’s asking Woods to go all Al Sharpton. Just address it honestly, even positively. He could think of it as an opportunity. Does anyone in their right mind think Tiger Woods would lose one sponsor if he said something like that? (If he did, the idiot sponsor would be quickly replaced by one of 100 waiting in the wings.) It can be done. I just did it and I’m an idiot. I mean, I’m no Rory Sabbatini, but still.

Tags: Al Sharpton, Buick Invitational, golf, Golf Channel, Long Beach, lynch, nooses, Rory Sabbatini, Sports Illustrated, Tiger Woods