Win talks to Myron about the drive to win that he sees in Jack Coldren. Win sees this drive as something negative, a force that causes professional athletes to put themselves above all others and neglect their personal lives and those who love them. He believes that Myron had this drive as a professional basketball player. The force of competition activates this desire. Myron doesn't believe that the drive to win is a bad thing. He sees pushing for success as noble.
Jack's drive to win makes him endanger his own son, though. Jack refuses to lose, even though his son has been kidnapped. Even after receiving his son's severed finger, Jack cannot let himself lose. He makes a nearly impossible put to tie the game. After he talks to the kidnappers again, Jack promises to lose, but he knows that he will not be able to hold himself to that promise. His wife knows it, too. Linda ultimately kills Jack, not out of revenge or hatred, but to squelch his overpowering drive to win.
The events of the story support Win's view of the drive to win, showing that the author sees the negative aspects of intense competition. After all, the U.S. Open is only a golf game. Winning it brings money, fame, and career opportunities, but when weighed against the life of a son, few people would do what Jack did. Jack's extraordinary competitive drive ends up being his own downfall.
Myron investigates crime, and he brings criminals to justice. The question of what is just is a complex one, though. Myron has Esme arrested for kidnapping and murder, but she believes that she was only seeking justice. Through Jack Coldren's actions, her father was ruined and her mother died. Esme wants Jack to pay for what he did. Like Myron, she seeks justice on her own.
Win also seeks justice. He takes untraceable Chevy cars and goes trolling through the bad areas of cities to find criminals. Then, he makes the criminals pay for their actions. Myron's point of view of this vigilante justice is ambiguous. He is opposed to it, but Esperanza points out that what Win does is not too far removed from what Myron does. The only difference is that Win is picking the crimes and criminals to attack. Myron uses almost any means, including torture, threats, and lies, to get what he wants. Are his means just? Myron implies that Win's nighttime activities are sinister, but Win only lets out that he reported where a molester buried two bodies, bringing him to justice.
Ultimately, Myron puts his own idea of justice above societal justice. He turns in Esme, but he lets Linda go, although he knows that she killed her husband. He risks disbarment if he turns on Linda.
The setting of professional golf and the ritzy Merion golf course create an atmosphere of riches. The golfing world is elite and well-off. This is contrasted with the criminal elements that Myron faces, including the neo-Nazi Tito. The picture is complicated by the presence of minorities, and they joke about discrimination. Norm is Jewish, and he receives awkward glances at the golf course clubhouse. Esperanza is Hispanic, and she is not the type that usually heads into Win's expensive neighborhood, except as a housekeeper. Victoria is black, and her parents were servants. Carl is also black, a different kind of servant of a rich criminal.
Both racial and socioeconomic discrimination pervade the story. The criminals who escape without punishment are all well-off white people. Matt's father is insane and incompetent, and yet he's a wealthy and successful criminal. Win's mother bribed a caddy to make Jack Coldren lose the U.S. Open, and yet she is not punished and takes the secret to her grave. Linda is rich and white, and she can afford a high-powered attorney, the child of her family's servants, who is still serving in a servile capacity, although in a more white-collar field. Linda is unlikely to ever go to jail for killing her husband.
Esme Fong, however well-off she is, is still a half-Asian woman. She is the daughter of a former caddy and has no wealthy family. She is a kidnapper, and she killed Tito. Are her crimes truly worse than Cissy and Linda's? Like Cissy, she seeks what she thinks is just private vengeance. Like Linda, she kills in a situation where she believes it is necessary. Still, she is turned over to the police and will likely be in jail for life.
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