The angry golfer

To: LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw

As much as I love ya, Ty, I'm beginning to deplore your Hall of Fame, which used to be the toughest and most dignified shrine in sports. The idea that Se Ri Pak could qualify for such "lifetime achievement status" at age 26--having yet to win an LPGA money title--illustrates all that is wrong with the process. Adding salt to the loophole, Pak's official induction won't take place until 2007, further exposing the gap between bureaucratic thinking and common sense.

I just informed my daughter we'll be celebrating her fourth birthday when she's 8 1/2. Quick, somebody get me a box of Kleenex.

Golf's halls of fame are inherently cramped by the eternal-career factor. You can't wait until a player retires because nobody ever quits. Still, Ty, 26? Pak met the LPGA's definition of immortality by accumulating 18 regular victories, four majors and a Vare Trophy on what is basically a three-player tour. Annika Sorenstam did the same at age 29, Karrie Webb at 25, convincing us new-age traditionalists that hall-of-fame nominations should be determined by voters, not just numbers.

Subjectivity keeps things sacred and honest, fending off dirtbags like Pete Rose. Pak, Sorenstam and Webb are great players and model citizens, but they're also too good for the system's own good. In softening your hall's standards five years ago, you basically traded a ballot box for Pandora's box. It leaves me wondering, Ty. How soon does Michelle Wie get in?