Still defending the indefensible
The majestic victory of Justin Rose in the US Open Championship, on one of the world’s toughest courses with the world’s best breathing down his neck, could not have come at a more opportune moment for a game sliding into disrepute and ridicule.
Rose burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old amateur, coming close to winning the Open Championship in his native England. He promptly turned pro and endured 21 missed cuts in succession. He was finally getting established on the circuit when Ken Rose died at the age of 57 and Justin lost not only his father but his mentor.
Overcoming this grievous blow, he persevered and started to win tournaments. He is a genuinely international golfer, playing in America most of the time but retaining a commitment to the European tour. Gracious in defeat as well as victory, he is acutely aware of the injustices of the world and with his wife Kate does unsung work for deprived children. It is difficult to think of a sportsman who more deserves our respect and admiration, and not at all surprising to witness the exceptional warmth of the tributes that have greeted his first success in a major championship.
This is, however, just about the only good thing to have happened in golf recently. The practice days at Merion were overshadowed by the apology or lack of apology (opinions differed) proffered by Sergio Garcia to the world number 1, Tiger Woods, for the Spaniard’s racist reference to Woods at some golfing dinner. If Garcia had deliberately set out to be as offensive as possible, he could not have done a better job than with his unguarded ‘fried chicken’ remarks.
But the reaction of the golfing public to this lapse was more revealing than the offence itself. When Garcia next stepped on a tee, at Wentworth in the PGA Championship, he was loudly cheered. The sport’s establishment had set a bad example to the unthinking crowd, doing nothing to discipline Garcia or even to make it clear that his behaviour was unacceptable. Within days we were being assured that Garcia had apologised – though not to Woods personally at that stage – and that it was already time to ‘move on’. Sometimes it is not time to move on. Sometimes it is time to stand still and confront a situation.
I read with particular interest a statement by the new captain of the European Ryder Cup team, Paul McGinlay, who will lead his squad into battle with the Americans at Gleneagles in the autumn of next year. There was no condemnation from McGinlay of Garcia’s conduct, merely a feeble reiteration of the mantra that the unfortunate episode should be regarded as closed. No doubt McGinlay would value Garcia, a tenacious competitor, as a member of his team, but that does not excuse the captain’s failure to recognise publicly that a line had been crossed. The footballing authorities have made a genuine effort to eradicate racism from their sport. It is shameful that golf shows so little inclination to follow this example.
Sexism is another curse of the game. Justin Rose will receive a hero’s welcome on his next appearance in this country, for the Open Championship at Muirfield. But should the game’s oldest and most prestigious event be taking place on a course governed by the self-styled Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers? Among that prehistoric bunch of blazers there is still no place for half the human race, the half that consists of women, yet the organisers (the R & A) continue to defend their decision to keep Muirfield on the Open rota, along with two other all-male bastions, ‘Royal’ Troon and ‘Royal’ St George’s.
Peter Dawson, the R & A’s chief executive, claimed recently that the general public had ‘a slightly false impression of what things are like in the game of golf’ because of the media’s portrayal of single-sex clubs. Mr Dawson dismisses as ‘overblown’ criticism that the endorsement of Muirfield sends out a dreadful message, reminding these critics that the Honourable Company, as a private club, is acting within UK equality legislation. He himself ‘totally believes in equality’ – of course – while adding that ‘there are times when men need to socialise with men and women need to socialise with women’. The chief executive of the R & A seems to inhabit a vanished world in which the ladies withdraw after dinner, leaving the dinner-jacketed gentlemen to their cigars. Scarily, he may not be alone.
But let us put Mr Dawson’s touching personal commitment to equality on one side and consider the R & A’s logic. Mr Dawson sums it up thus: ‘To think that we might say to a club like Muirfield, “You are not going to have the Open any more unless you change your policy” is frankly a bullying position that we would never take’. To make it clear to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers that they are pariahs – on the Scottish bench, some of them, sitting in judgement on the rest of us but pariahs none the less – would not be a form of bullying. It would be to adopt an enlightened and civilising lead. It would be to join the rest of the human race.
Peter Dawson maintains that the life of the typical golf club – it is unclear whether he regards Muirfield as typical – has changed out of all recognition in the last 30 years. I hope he is right. But, since he has raised the subject, I cannot resist giving you a glimpse of what Muirfield was like 30 years ago.
George Pottinger, a corrupt high-ranking civil servant at the Scottish Office, built a house on the edge of the course from the proceeds of money criminally solicited from a dodgy architect, John Poulson. When Pottinger was faced with a bill for £13,500 from the official receiver handling Poulson’s bankruptcy, he persuaded a fellow member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, one Johnny Mancha, to pay £14,000 into his bank account, making a profit of £500 on the transaction. A very Pottinger outcome.
‘Is one to understand,’ asked prosecuting counsel at Pottinger’s subsequent trial, ‘that there are people lurking about the clubhouse at Muirfield when Mr Mancha plays, waiting to take money from him?’.
Pottinger: ‘Yes, there are.’
Counsel: ‘This is the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, is it not?’.
To which Pottinger, with the gates of Armley Prison closing on him, still found it possible to respond: ‘You must not be disrespectful’.
What was true 30 years ago remains true today. In golf, the racist jibe goes unpunished. In golf, sexism is positively rewarded. The Honourable Company rejoice in their name, while the ghost of George Pottinger hangs over them. Above all things, we must not be disrespectful to such people.
Justin Rose is one of the nice guys. But he is a nice guy in a smug, increasingly nasty commercialised sport. It may not be too much to hope that, one day, this articulate man will use his growing influence to lobby for change. That would be worth more than any major.
Kenneth Roy is editor of the Scottish Review
