Tom Watson Changes Course

I remembering reading that golfer Tom Watson voted for George McGovern for president. This is surprising behavior from a pro golfer. One golfer, Orville Moody, who won the 1969 Open,said the next time a protest took place at Kent State, Nixon should machine-gun about fifty students. This is the guy that golf-god, Jack Nicklaus, said had a dry sense of humor. Imagine that. So when I read years ago that Watson voted for a liberal, I was amazed that he was even allowed to park his car at some of these golf clubs -- let alone play there.

Well, there is an old saying that middle age is where a broad mind and a narrow waist trade places. Ladies and gentleman, I present in evidence Tom Watson:

Watson was at a golf banquet receiving an award for Comeback Player of the Year. Golf is the only sport where you get an award for coming back but you didn't win anything -- coming back from what, finishing second instead of fortieth? You still lost, Tommy.

Anyway,so Watson wins his award and says that he feels like President Obama when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, in that he doesn't deserve this award either. Watson is now described in the journals reporting this knee-slapper as a conservative.

I want you to imagine the conservative writers and radio and TV mouths, flapping like a baseball card on a bicycle spoke, if an athlete had made such a remark about President Bush. The village of media wingnuts would question his or her patriotism, lineage and voting record, and heaven help us if the jock joker was born in Latin America, they would ask to see his passport.

I don't understand how Watson could resist the urge to seem humble just by saying he didn't deserve the award. Dragging Obama's name in seems petty and spiteful. Perhaps Watson is jealous. After all, Obama won HIS event.