Racially insensitive comments by Donald Sterling earned the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner a lifetime ban from the NBA and a hefty fine. The act also might just cost him the franchise he has owned for almost four decades.
The sports landscape, unfortunately, has had more than its share of racially charged incidents, and golf is no exception.
Fuzzy Zoeller, Sergio Garcia and Steve Williams talking about Tiger Woods. Steve Elkington’s tweets that offended Pakistani people.
But the NBA’s swift and public admonishment of its owner stands in stark contrast to the PGA Tour’s approach to handling such incidents.
The prim and proper PGA would much rather handle it in-house and away from the public spotlight.
How much longer can the organization continue to take the approach? Will the public demand a more demonstrative reaction if — gulp, when — it happens again?
“The Tour’s secrecy about disciplinary proceedings — enforced with equal vigor on everything from slow play to cheating to drug use — has nothing to do with the privacy of the persons concerned, but rather presenting a sanitized product to corporate partners and fans alike,” golf.com managing editor Eamon Lynch told Sports Illustrated.
The magazine solicited theories from several prominent golf writers, and most agreed with Lynch’s stance. SI senior writer Alan Shipnuck said the the Tour’s obsession over it’s “swell fellow” image makes for a flawed approach to discipline.
“In the absence of public censure the players are emboldened to say insensitive things,” Shipnuck said. “It’s a broken policy.”