The failure of professional golf's administrators to condemn Steve Williams shows the sport's lack of leadership
No comment. No comment. No comment. For a global sport at a global event in the midst of a global controversy, professional golf had depressingly little to say for itself in the immediate aftermath of Steve Williams's racial slur against his former employer Tiger Woods.
"That black arsehole,'' was the term used by the New Zealander at an awards ceremony in Shanghai in front of 200 or so players, caddies, sponsors and officials. No lip reading necessary and little need for interpretation, although ? believe it or not ? Williams retains a small cadre of loyalists who have always claimed to see beyond his boorish public persona and into the soul of a better man. He is blunt, apparently. He is honest, a breath of fresh air in a stuffy world. The apologists were at it again on Saturday, albeit with a little less enthusiasm than has been their wont over the years.
Apparently, he did not mean any harm. He is socially gauche, which explains why he "misjudged" the mood of the occasion, believing that his comments at a "caddie of the year" ceremony were somehow in keeping with the "fun" spirit of the occasion. Indeed, there was a suggestion in some circles the real "crime" was that Williams's comments had become public despite being made in a private "off-the-record" setting.
It requires little further thought to establish the folly of such thinking. Does "off-the-record" confer immunity for every Tom, Dick or Harry to say whatever he likes about whom ever he likes in whatever offensive manner he so wishes? Of course not.
That Williams was guilty of revealing an ugly truth about himself, unwittingly or otherwise, is beyond doubt. So is the punishment he should have faced. He should have gone. From the Champions event in China. From his lucrative employment with the Australian golfer Adam Scott. From the sport of golf. For good.
That none of these things had happened by the evening after the night before speaks eloquently about the cravenness and cowardice of the self-regarding, self-perpetuating, self-enriching administrators who claim to have the best interests of golf at heart.
They came to China this week to sell their sport as modern and inclusive. They were tripping over themselves to claim their share of the Asian economic boom. Instead they now find themselves peddling Williams's brand of vile bigotry ? the inevitable consequence of their refusal to disown themselves from what the caddie had said, far less from the man himself. How does the old adage go? All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
In an economy blighted by unemployment there has been at least one bright spot. Professional golf now has legions of press officers. Watching them go about their work on Saturday, trying to becalm the firestorm started by Williams, it was hard not to look on them as lions led by donkeys.
A one-line press release was issued by the tournament organisers, the contents unworthy of a wider audience. Move along now, nothing here to see, was the gist of it.
The players, too, were left to handle the inevitable questions about a sensitive social issue, a task for which none of them were equipped. Say nothing, as the majority did, and you are damned. Saying something, as a few of them did, and they are doomed to make excuses for the inexcusable.
In an ideal world, someone would have had the guts to stand up for decency, to condemn Williams for what he said and call for his ostracism. Alas it did not happen. This is a disappointment but it is not a surprise. Professional golf at the highest level is not a breeding ground for social warriors. It is a comfortable, fabulously wealthy place for the athletes who are focused mostly maintaining this gilded status quo. This is not an excuse but an explanation.
One day golf may find its very own Arthur Ashe but in the meantime it is the job of those who run the game ? the European and PGA Tours, the R&A and the United States Golf Association ? to show leadership beyond the boundaries of the fairway ropes.
To know the history of modern golf is to know that this leadership has been woefully lacking. Hence we have the continued abomination of the R&A, the so-called "governing body", continuing to bar women members. Similarly, Augusta National, home of the Masters, has no female members ? and very few black and Jewish ones either. The official reaction ? or rather non-reaction ? to Williams's comments is straight from this playbook of 19th-century social attitudes.
Sexism and racism are the twin pillars of golfing intolerance and should be tackled head-on at every opportunity. Instead we have this unedifying spectacle of abject leadership: look away and say nothing in the hope that it all goes way.
Truly, the donkeys are still in charge.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/05/caddie-williams-racial-slur-tiger-woods
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