Woods is teeing it up today at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines

Woods is teeing it up today at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, but the buzz leading up to his PGA Tour season debut isn't about his uncharacteristically bold assertion that winning the Grand Slam this year is "easily within reason." There's still fallout from announcer Kelly Tilghman's racially charged remark about him on the Golf Channel in the season's first event.

The shock waves brought renewed criticism of Woods for failing to be more outraged and for failing to use his golf platform to become a more prominent voice for social causes. He heard the same complaints six years ago when Martha Burk began pressuring Augusta National Golf Club to admit its first woman as a member. Woods was faulted for failing to use his considerable influence to aid the cause.

Make no mistake, the PGA Tour is taking extreme measures for the first time this year to reveal what's going on internally with its players.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem met with pros Tuesday to review the tour's new drug-testing program scheduled to go into effect this summer. Come July, the tour will know a lot more about what's coursing through their players' systems.

But Finchem stops short in this inner exploration.

The tour ought to hook up every player to a lie-detector device and question him about where he stands on important political and social issues.

The results could be published in their player bios in the media guide.

Ridiculous? Yes, of course, but so is the insistence that we have a right to know what Tiger Woods believes beyond golf. Yes, if Woods wants to champion a cause, terrific. That's his right. There's much to admire in the personal risk celebrities take doing so, in their willingness to endure the backlash that often follows. But it's not our place to expect them to do so, and certainly not to demand they do so.

The renewed criticism of Woods' lack of social stands raises questions about how much we have a right to know about the stars we follow and what they do or don't believe.

Woods gets the same criticism Michael Jordan withstood. He gets accused of avoiding political or social stands to protect his marketing value and lucrative endorsements. Asked about holding back support for a black candidate in a tight senate race in his native North Carolina in 1990, Jordan famously said: "Republicans buy shoes, too."

Whatever Woods' political and social beliefs, they are none of our business unless he makes them our business.

As much as the PGA Tour wants the storylines to move to golf this week, the debate remains relevant with Tilghman making her return to the Golf Channel today after a two-week suspension.