William Porter Payne, better known as Billy, the chairman of the Augusta National Golf Course, home of the Masters tournament, seems to think that that entitles him to act as if he were the chairman of the board of the "Masters of the Universe". In a forty-two second clip, he manages to insult Tiger Woods, himself, and the entire Augusta National Country Club by delivering a condescending sermon to the world's greatest golfer (who happens to be honoring the Masters by making it his first stop on his return to golf and probably increasing the tournament's television audience by 50 percent).
I would not be so offended by this had I not known a woman who traveled with the national golf tour for several years while working for a magazine that covered the sport. After being constantly hit on by many of the "best golfers in the world", watching them take their pleasure with other women -- like sailors with girlfriends at every port (golfers seem to find girlfriends at every course) -- she quit her job and went into another line of work. The hypocrisy, the pretense, of love and loyalty when wives were around and the womanizing after they left had become too much for her. She felt as if she were an accomplice to their infidelity and she left the tour.
Not to be a hypocrite myself, I remember that in the sixties, when women were just beginning to get good jobs in journalism, we reminded them of what were then called "New York Times rules" -- "what happens west of the Potomac, stays west of the Potomac". Female reporters who went on the road may have been close friends with the wives of many of the men who were on the road with them, but none of them brought back stories about who was doing what to whom while they were out of town. I think that's a good rule, and I think by and large, we're just as well off not knowing what golfers do when they're on tour. I do know that several others of the world's best golfers were notorious within the community for indulging themselves whenever they could.
Tiger Woods got caught, and he is paying dearly for it. So is golf, just look at the ratings. The last thing he or golf needs is Payne's pious preaching as he joins in the pretense that great athletes must be saintly in order to merit public adulation. Rock stars and sports stars are like catnip to groupies, and most of them succumb to temptation. What Tiger did is a sin he shares with many others, and he has acknowledged it. He doesn't need the likes of Billy Payne, who profits from his presence, to condemn him for his misdeeds.
Billy Payne is a hypocrite and the other Augusta Golf Course members should call him on it.
Of course, that still doesn't give him the right to make his absolutely assinine remarks, but it does give another reason - more watchers, more money.
First off, Billy Payne is the Augusta National chairman and as such was the acting host of the Masters. It was hardly his place to insult a guest in 'his house', so to speak. Tiger, as far as we know, had done nothing wrong while playing golf at AN. Oh, the occasional expletive from Tiger gets their britches in a wad, but who do we know that golfs who doesn't lose it to our trash mouths every now and then?
Payne was insulting and made himself as well as the rest of the governing committee down there in Georgie look like a bunch of tight-**ssed blowhards.
Some of those older golf professionals have been well known for years as jumping anything with a pulse, yet I can't recall a time a one of them showed up to tee off in the Masters that Hootie or Billy thought THEY needed to reprimand those guys. You'd think they would have treated Tiger a whole lot better for, as you noted, made the Masters his first stop after coming back on tour. They should be kneeling as his feet for what he single-handedly did for their ratings all 4 days.
Why the "piling on"? After all, it is not as though Woods is a member of Congress, the body that passes the laws we live by - and how many of them have committed adultery and are still members in good standing of the "good ol' boys club"? Woods is not a religious leader, showing the way (supposedly) to righteousness and heaven - and how many o them have we seen crying the crocodile tears and asking for forgiveness for acts of adultery?
Woods is a sports figure - nothing more and nothing less. He has not committed felonies, as many of the NFL players have done and are still "stars" on the field. This is a metter between him and his wife - not Payne with all his self-righteousness. Makes you wonder if Payne "doth not protest too much"!
If you had paid more attention to golf prior to Thanksgiving of 2009 you would already know some of the names (!!)
Role Model B: Sanctimonious pompous white guy who runs a golf course chiding the superstar black guy bringing in the bacon.
Hmmmmm. Lemme think on this....
I saw that clip and was stunned by it.
But I am more stunned by the lack of fallout.
Augusta. In the south. Would Payne have ripped a non-black superstar a new one?
In fact I could sit here and write 'ditto' to almost everything said here.
It was totally inappropriate and uncalled-for. If he felt he wanted to sit and have a private 'chat' with Tiger Woods, that's one thing (and I still wouldn't agree with it but at least I wouldn't have known about it!) but the public admonishment - we were stunned.
You're right in saying he would NEVER have public reprimanded a white golfer especially for something that had NOTHING to do with GOLF or the MASTERS (!!)
The lack of fall-out over this over display of bigotry is disgusting.
Why would the other hypocrites want to call out one of their own?
What about the politicians who make our laws? What about the religious leaders who fell from grace?
And we seem to be willing to forgive those professional athletes who have committed felonies, up to and including manslaughter and the torture and killing of innocent animals. How much worse were their crimes than the very personal one of unfaithfulness?
And to promote what you call the 'New York Times rules', a sort of don't ask/don't tell version or journalistic hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy, demostrates that your moral compass was formed when Eisenhower was president, and woman were around to make sure your dinner was hot when you got home.
Your wife probably irons your boxer shorts, doesn't she?
AND MANY JUDGING TIGER ARE GUILTY OF THE SAME JUST HAVEN'T GOT CAUGHT.
Perhaps he is continuing this needed process along the way. I doubt it. No, he is doing what is easy and comfortable. He will regret it. Years from now he will look back and wonder why. Why he was so foolish to throw away the one thing that makes us real, our family and the incredibly enriching experiences that only a family can provide a person. He will typify the post-modern tragic figure in American life. A person who has it all, throws away the important part, gets a chance at redemption, and turns away again. I hope I am wrong. Do you really think he has come to terms and just coincidently in time for the Masters? Not a chance.
NIKE CHOSE TO REMEMBER THEY HIRED THE GOLFER NOT THE FATHER AND HUSBAND. HOW MAY ADS INCLUDED HIS FAMILY. HOW MANY HIM AS A GOLFER. THE FORMER NONE I CAN RECALL. THE LATTER ALL I CAN REMEMBER.