Apparently, it is necessary to reaffirm this:  when it comes to golf, and many other sports, there is gender inequality.

At a recent golf tournament Tiger Woods drove further than his playing partner Justin Thomas.  In an expression of their fun-loving camaraderie, Tiger discreetly passed Justin a tampon.  Actually, it was caught on camera, and upon learning about this good-natured taunt the insecure professional victims started squeaking loudly, as is their wont.  Somehow, Tiger’s frivolous prank was not only disrespectful (even though Justin was amused) but torpedoed any notion of gender equality. 

I don’t know why some loud “menstruating people,” AKA women, are so upset.  Perhaps he could have been more discreet, but it’s not as if Tiger was making a public service announcement that women golfers are inferior.  That’s the conclusion they are drawing, and perhaps they dost protest too much, highlighting the incident more than deserved.  Furthermore, for women golfers to be associated with Justin Thomas is not the worst thing for, even on his worst day, he is probably better than the best LPGA golfer on her best day.

In fact, the worst golfer on the PGA is probably better than the best golfer on the LPGA.  Regardless, the stats are clear:  on average, male golfers driving distance far exceeds that of female golfers. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who dares challenge the gender equality dogma.  In this PC milieu it bears repeating the obvious:  men have more muscle mass and larger skeletons.  Furthermore, we are generally taller and have longer arms, allowing for faster swings.  All this translates into swing kinematic differences favoring men over women. Duh!

What may be more surprising is that male golfers have more skill and finesse around and on the greens.  Per golf digest, “the best male putters take about half a stroke less per round on the greens than their female counterparts,” even though men play on faster greens with more challenging pin placements. As Matthew Rudy elucidates in Golf Digest:

“Go farther down the putts-per-round list and the gap gets wider -- more than a full shot for players ranked 100th, and almost two shots at No. 150. That's a significant gulf, and one that can't easily be explained away by analysis of parallel statistics like greens hit in regulation -- a stat often held up as a reason LPGA players would have worse putting numbers.”

Therefore, if Tiger wanted to be extra frivolous, or obnoxious from a “people with a period” perspective, he could have given Justin another tampon when he missed a putt. And once again, women could take solace that they are being associated with someone who probably putts better than the vast majority of them.  

So Tiger was just having fun with a friend, and Justin was amused.  I don’t dare to enter Tiger’s less-than-pleasing persona for, at least till recently, he hasn’t come across as a sympathetic chap.   However, I do wonder how premediated his tampon gesture was.  Perhaps, as is the case in many bathrooms, there was a feminine dispenser in the men’s-cum-unisex bathroom.  Indeed, tampon dispensers are intruding into what were once male bathrooms but are now gender-neutral.  See the section entitled “Public restrooms” in this document about golf course standards from the National Park Service. 

Regardless, whether premediated for days or somewhat spontaneous during a convenience break, Tiger’s biggest offense was not appreciating the severe mental maladies that befall those who try to deny the natural, and pleasing, inequalities that nature bestows on us.  Inequalities that also enable women to outperform men in nurturing ways, but not in sports where physical prowess is imperative.

Image: KeithAllisonPhoto.com