IN the interest of full disclosure, I would like to make the following confession to the United States Golf Association:
The other night, while driving home from work, I slightly exceeded the speed limit on the LIE. OK, so maybe more than slightly. But, hey, it was after midnight and nobody was around.
At times, I had a cell phone to my ear. I was even talking into it. No hands-free gizmos for me. At no time did I fasten my seat belt. I never even thought about it.
Wait, there’s more. I suspect one of my taillights may be out. I’m sure my ashtrays are dirty. And although I don’t think I ran any red lights, I’m pretty certain I sped through a couple of yellows.
Does this mean I can’t cover next month’s U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park.
This is not a joke.
In the latest example of using the tragedy of 9/11 as an excuse for governmental and private agencies to begin delving into the lives of American citizens, the USGA is requiring journalists, among others, to agree to submit to extensive background checks before it will issue them credentials to cover the tournament this year.
What this means is, in exchange for the privilege of being allowed to watch Tiger Woods and a bunch of old men hit a ball, follow it for a quarter-mile or so, and then repeat the process 71 times over four days, reporters are being forced to allow Big Brother to delve into not only their criminal histories, but their driving records, their medical and credit histories, their tax returns and their immigration status.
This has nothing to do with the inconveniencing of golf writers, as highly pampered and freebied-out-the-wazoo group as has ever existed in any profession.
It has everything to do with our vaunted Way of Life, which we were told, in the hysterical days immediately following the destruction of the World Trade Center, was the reason for the attacks in the first place.
Fanatical Islamic terrorists hate us because we are free, we were advised, and wanted to destroy our freedoms. So now, eight months later, in the name of protecting ourselves from terrorism, our government and our sports agencies try to destroy those freedoms themselves.
Figure that one out. That is a foolish and hypocritical overreaction on the part of everyone concerned. First of all, no such precautions were taken for the three World Series games played in New York barely six weeks after the attacks, or for football games played at the Meadowlands, or at the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
It wasn’t even done at the Salt Lake City Olympics, probably the biggest security risk the world of sports has faced since 9/11. At all of those events, much more vulnerable and high-profile than any golf tournament, the standard metal detector and stick job were deemed sufficient, as well as a visual search of all bags.
Plus, no members of the public attending the Open will be asked to lay their personal and professional lives bare to government and USGA scrutiny, even though fans will get as close, or closer, to Tiger & Friends during play as any scribbler or squawker covering the event.
I shouldn’t have to add that it looks exceedingly bad for golf, our most exclusionary pastime to begin with, to institute a policy that can only result in more exclusion.
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Tennis Association, regulators of another exclusionary sport of the elite, is planning to pull a similar stunt for their U.S. Open in Flushing this August.
Knuckling under to this kind of bullying would set a very bad precedent for a society that prides itself on individual freedoms as well as freedom of the press. Plus, it is just another mindless smokescreen to divert our attention from the alarming fact that our “protectors” really have no idea how to stop terrorism.
In truth, had Mohammed Atta on Sept. 10 been subjected to the type of background check journalists are being asked to submit to for the U.S. Open, he likely still would have been allowed on an airplane on Sept. 11.
“This kind of intrusive waiver of privacy is not the best way of going about this if your concern is physical safety,” said David Schulz, a lawyer who has been hired by six media outlets, including the Associated Press and the New York Times, to lead its protest against the USGA.
“We really have no interest at all in interfering with security. We’re willing to submit to any of the generally accepted methods of securing events. But we don’t want this to become a routine idea that we live in a society where you have to relinquish your rights to privacy to do your job.”
If the USGA – or the New York State Police, or whoever is behind it all – gets away with this, then there’s no point in covering the U.S. Open anyway, because you will already know who has won and who has lost.
Terrorism 1, Freedom 0.