Last week, I was accused of stereotyping an oppressed minority, of applying broadbrushed strokes to an element of our society which is in need of protection from the evil eyes and tongues of folks like me. Me, a person who still prides himself on being a socialist (well, kinda) and isn't afraid to say so when confronted by white guys in bad haircuts.

My big crime? Disparaging golfers.

Hey, there are three activites which I actively scorn. One, worhipping at any sort of fundamentalist church. Two, throwing two pounds of poppy-seed dressing on a little lettuce and calling it a "diet". Three, playing golf. I admit to having said all sorts of nasty things about golf to any number of my co-workers, many of whom play the game. Most of my co-workers seem to understand that I am ripping on the acitivity and not the person. They tell jokes about whacking the little white ball which are at least as vicious as mine.

Maybe his rant at me had something to do with the Masters. The guy sitting across from me had been spending about 14 hours a day organizing the coverage. I'm willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt here.

What happened was, a story came across the wire which said that masters.org was getting 238,000 hits per minute, or 1.5 million a day. Needless to say, the math was just a bit wrong. I figured by changing "minute" to "hour", things would match up much nicer. I related this snafu to anyone around me, in my usual loud and grating voice. After calculating how many hits 238,000 a minute would actually translate into (a figure which dwarfs what finalfour.net received during the entire month of March, a record amount, BTW) I finished my little story with, "I'm sorry, but there aren't that many rich white guys who want to read about golf on the web."

My co-worker took offense at me describing golfers as rich white guys. "Hey, I've seen lots of people on the course who don't dress any better than you." And then he took me to task for stereotyping "the great American game" and for slurring him, in particular. "I go out and play public links," he said, "I play two or three times a week. And I'm not rich."

First, my "rich white guy" comment was actually describing people who haunt the internet. More than half of the people regularly surfing fall into the "rich white guy" category. But even so, I really don't think golfers are in any need of protection from the likes of me.

My co-worker makes a lot more money than I do. His wife works as well. He drives a nice car. He's buying a house on a hill overlooking the Neuse River. It's not a cheap house. He's rich. He's white. And yes, "he" is a guy.

There aren't many folks in the projects who can pony up the bucks for a bag of clubs, much less even municipal greens fees. Same goes for blue-collar types. Middle-class sorts might be able to afford a game a month (once the initial capital outlay is complete), but even that's not likely.

Golf is still reserved for the upper-middle class and richer. This doesn't make the game evil, but as I don't really like associating with those sorts of folks on a regular basis, it's a real good reason for me to avoid the game. I prefer hiking, biking, racquetball (which, admittedly, is also something of a upper class sport) and other more strenuous activites. I express my opinion often. Loudly.

And I'm rich. My wife and I didn't make it to the 28 percent tax bracket this year (we never have), but we have more than enough money to suit our purposes and dump a healthy chunk in the bank. Any purchase under $1000 can be completed as soon as we decide it is necessary. Need a couch? We do the proper shopping and get one. I think that qualifies as rich. Some might say couch shopping is a rich person's sport. I wouldn't argue.

Rich people will always have to endure the scorn and derision of the lower classes. You don't hear computer assemblers talking about the last chukker they played or about the brand new $3000 driver they just "picked up" at the pro shop. Jealousy and somewhat justified anger at greedy haves go with the capitalist territory. The fact remains that money makes the world go round, and the rich control the strings.

Which means I'm gonna make fun of golf and golfers until I get fired. Which might be next week. You never know.

Jon Worley much prefers the sport of baseball, where a below-average player make much more than some of the better golfers on the PGA tour.