With Vijay Singh holding a tremendous lead in the PGA Tour’s 2008 FedEx Cup, sports critics and bloggers are calling attention to the tournament’s lack of drama. But Michael Leon Guerrero, social justice director and sports blogger for judythefoodie.com, is wondering, “Where’s the love?” when covering the excellent performance of Vijay Singh.
Orange, Calif. (RUSHPRNEWS) 09/15/2008— While bloggers and sports critics bemoan the format of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup, saying it inherently omits “the suspense” in the latter tournaments, sports blogger Michael Leon Guerrero has one question on his mind: Will Vijay finally be the story?
This question formed the basis of a passionate editorial on “The Mag-Blog of Judy ‘the foodie’,” which Leon Guerrero posted shortly after the BMW Championship on Sunday, Sept. 7.
“(Singh) has won two of the last three qualifying events and has built a nearly insurmountable lead in the FedEx points standings,” Leon Guerrero says. “After his first two victories this year (the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in August, and the Barclays) the headlines were about how Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia lost those tournaments respectively.”
Leon Guerrero addresses how Singh has emerged as one of the winning players on the PGA, but media coverage heralding his talents and determination to overcome tremendous adversity, has been eclipsed by unpopular comments Singh has made to the media. Most recently, he was tagged for “snubbing” the media at the end of the BMW Championship, which Singh reportedly chose not to do while Jim Furyk still had a shot in the game. And most notably, his disagreement with Annika Sorenstam’s exemption to play in the men’s Colonial tournament in 2005.
“Maybe not a popular political view, but it certainly makes sense if seen from the perspective of someone who many times had to overcome incredible odds to earn his way to the top level,” the Southern California sports blogger and avid PGA Tour follower says.
A Pacific Islander with Guamanian (Chamorro) roots, Leon Guerrero is not the first to question why Singh is not a “media darling.” But with performance results that can no longer be ignored, the sports blogger and social justice director can’t help but wonder if the U.S. sports-media establishment can handle more than one man of color at the top of the pro golf world.
“Like Tiger, his accomplishments must be exceptional to be recognized,” Leon Guerrero says. “I find myself getting frustrated at tournament coverage when the cameras will follow people like Phil Mickelson incessantly even when he is playing poorly, but will only cut to Vijay when he tops the leaderboard.”
Referencing Singh’s challenging background of growing up poor in Fiji and–as a pro-golfer–experiencing everything from racism to media attention for having to wear the same pants for a week on tournaments to suspect disqualification from the Asian Tour when he inadvertently signed a flawed score card, Leon Guerrero says Singh’s impending FedEx Cup victory might happen with an asterisk–and more complaints about the FedEx Cup’s no-drama format.
“Even if (Singh) doesn’t win this week’s tournament, Vijay is probably going to win the FedEx playoffs,” the judythefoodie.com blogger writes. “Tiger is out for the year recovering from knee surgery, and critics are already complaining the FedEx scoring system has taken the drama out of the playoffs. But maybe the sports media can settle back and, for a moment at least, take advantage of the opportunity to appreciate another one of the greats of our time.”
To read Michael Leon Guerrero’s entire post, visit http://judythefoodie.com/2008/09/07/fedex-cup-will-vijay-finally-be-the-story-feature/ .
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Contact Information
Judy Asman
The Mag-Blog of Judy
http://judythefoodie.com/2008/09/07/fedex-cup-will-vijay-finally-be-the-story-feature/
714-651-6170
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