How will Pebble Beach greet Dustin Johnson after playing boycotted tourney?

In summer 1990, I phoned Arthur Ashe, a tennis player, to ask him about golf.

There was a controversy raging about pro golf tournaments held at private clubs that had restricted memberships. I wanted to get the perspective of Ashe, who was a leader in the boycott by athletes and entertainers of then-apartheid South Africa.

Most American athletes honored that boycott, including tennis great John McEnroe. But South Africa held a golf tourney with huge purses, and most pro golfers ignored the boycott every year to play Sun City.

I asked Ashe, who was as quiet and intelligent a protester/poop-stirrer as you could ever hope to meet, if golf was the least-enlightened sport.

“If you don’t count polo,” Ashe said.