Every week of the 2011 PGA Tour season, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group will conduct an e-mail roundtable. Check in on Mondays for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation in the comments section below.
STEVE WILLIAMS’S RACIAL INSULT
John Garrity, contributing writer, Sports Illustrated: I’m just going to drop the puck and get out of the way. The story of the week has to be caddie Steve Williams’s revolting diss of his former boss, Tiger Woods, at the caddies’ annual awards dinner in Shanghai. (Asked on stage why he had gloated on TV after his new boss, Adam Scott, outplayed Woods while winning the Bridgestone Invitational in August, Williams answered, “My aim was to shove it right up that black a——!”) My question is: With the Presidents Cup due to begin in 10 days, has Williams given golf haters a 52-card pack of race cards to play?
Ryan Reiterman, senior producer, Golf.com: His comments certainly don’t help, and the PGA Tour and European Tour’s lack of a response hurt even more.
Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: I don’t think golf haters need any more ammo. There’s plenty. But Williams has certainly reinforced a lot of preconceived notions and re-established himself as a world-class jerk.
Jim Herre, managing editor, SI Golf Group: It was a stupid thing to say, even as a joke. Makes me wonder about Williams’s IQ.
Reiterman: And since when does being on a stage, talking into a microphone, in front of a room full of people constitute being “off the record”?
Herre: The tours have responded — case closed. Will be interesting to see if the players let Williams off that easy. He broke the caddie code with this one. Could cost him his career.
Charlie Hanger, executive editor, Golf.com: As Shipnuck pointed out in his column Sunday, anytime a racial incident happens in golf, it recalls the bad old days and draws attention to the fact that not much has changed diversity-wise, at least on the PGA Tour. So yes, golf haters will see this as another black eye for the game. As for the Presidents Cup, this whole thing has added some intrigue. I wonder if Tiger and Stevie will come to blows.
Damon Hack, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I’m disappointed in golf’s tepid response but hardly surprised. As for Steve Williams, his comment was racist whether or not he is racist. It was an attempt to regain some semblance of power against someone he used to work for. It was a comment made to elevate himself and to put Tiger in his place in front of a roomful of peers. It disgusts me.
Jeff Ritter, senior producer, Golf.com: After Woods fired Williams this summer, the public inexplicably got behind Stevie — it was a little strange to see him roundly cheered at Tour events after he behaved with such little class on Tiger’s bag for so many years. This event reminded me that, to paraphrase a popular NFL catchphrase, “he was who we thought he was.”
Stephanie Wei, contributor, SI Golf+: So far it seems like the players are letting him off with a pass — at least publicly. Adam Scott says Stevie will absolutely continue to be his caddie. G-Mac and Rory gave apathetic comments and sounded ready to move on. Fred Couples seems to be the only guy who has spoken out strongly and he said he’d fire him.
Herre: Steph, that’s what they say for public consumption. In private, any player would have to wonder if he could trust Williams, who seems to think he has more power than his employer.
Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I’ll be shocked if Fred Couples doesn’t fit Tiger into a match against Adam Scott during the Prez Cup, preferably singles. You know Tiger wants a piece of that action.
Have a question for Gary Van Sickle’s mailbag? E-mail editor@golf.com or ask it on Facebook.
Wei: Weren’t the Australian Open organizers planning on putting Adam Scott and Tiger Woods (along with Jason Day) in the same threesome for the first two rounds? Wonder if they’ll stick to that plan.
Herre: If they’re smart, they will.
Tell us what you think: Will Steve Williams overshadow the Presidents Cup?
WAS WILLIAMS’S REMARK ‘TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT’?
Garrity: Adam Scott suggested that Stevie’s wisecrack was taken out of context, and one observer said that if Tiger had been present, he’d probably have laughed along with the crowd. I’ve never been to the caddie dinner, but I gather the banter aspires to the crudeness of a Comedy Channel celebrity roast. Does that excuse Stevie?
Reiterman: Absolutely not. It’s a stupid thing to say no matter where you are.
Hack: Taken out of context. Love that excuse.
Herre: It sounded to me like some of those in attendance were shocked by Williams’s crude joke, which is why word of it got out so fast.
Hanger: It might help explain why he said what he said, and it might make it less offensive than if he’d said it while talking to TV interviewers by the 18th green, but I don’t think it excuses it. Bringing race into it indicates to me that Williams does have some deep-down, ugly thoughts in his head — otherwise, why would “black” have been part of that remark?
Herre: Exactly, Charlie. Other pros, like Graeme McDowell, were wise enough to make the same point.
Gorant: The rules for a comedian working a roast or doing a routine are different than they are for a glorified bellhop spewing hate speech in a public forum.
Hanger: I’m not anywhere close to excusing Stevie for this, but I think “spewing hate speech” is a little over the top. It was one ugly remark by one hard-to-like guy.
Gorant: The guy is a pig and a bully with a history of bad behavior. He’s made millions-most of it thanks to Tiger Woods-carrying a bag. Soft-pedal if you want Charlie, but I don’t want to ever hear from this guy again. If you said the same thing, you’d be fired and you’d have a hard time getting another job.
Hanger: I’m just saying “spewing hate speech” is hyperbole, especially when we didn’t witness the incident first-hand to hear his tone of voice or judge the amount of animosity. That’s not soft-pedaling it. Like I said, I think what he said was really ugly. If I were Adam Scott, I’d have fired him already.
Hack: This whole Stevie deal reminds me of the Association of Golf Writers dinner back at the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie when the R&A’s Graham Brown made derogatory remarks about Asians and blacks. Peter Dawson said Brown “certainly is not racist” and was “horrified if he left that impression.”
Tell us what you think: Was Williams out of line with his comments or was his crude humor taken out of context?
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