MIKE PURKEY
The whole thing has a nauseating
stench. And if you didn’t already have an
opinion about Steve Williams, this should
clinch it.
When he worked for Tiger Woods, he
was overbearing, condescending and, at
times, an outright thug. Having been fired
by Woods, he demonstrated – in public –
that he’s not above stooping to outright
racism, which should tell you all you need
to know about Steve Williams.
Williams spoke at the annual caddies’
dinner held Friday night in Shanghai during the WGC-HSBC Champions. Williams
received a tongue-in-cheek award from
his fellow caddies for “Celebration of the
Year,” for his comments to the media
about his new boss, Adam Scott, winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in
August.
He told print and broadcast media that
the victory, his first with Scott, was the biggest and best of his career, clearly a verbal
swat at the man for whom he worked while
he won 14 major championships.
In accepting this “award,” Williams told
the assembled audience, “My aim was to
shove it right up that black a-------.”
There’s no way to parse it, noth-
ing taken out of context, no extenuating
circumstances for this to be construed as
anything other than what it was – a highly
inflammatory racist remark.
Williams will claim the statement was
a joke, tossed out casually at this private
dinner and never should have been for
public consumption. He gets no excuse, no
pass for this one. In today’s world of 24-
hour news cycles and the immediate and
relentless nature of social media, anything
you say in public will be released publicly,
no matter the venue or the occasion.
If a player had made such a racist statement,
he would be fined and suspended by every
tour he’s ever played an event on.
I made last night at the Annual Caddy
Awards dinner in Shanghai. Players and
caddies look forward to this evening all
year and the spirit is always joking and
fun. I now realize how my comments could
be construed as racist. However I assure
you that was not my intent. I sincerely
apologize to Tiger and anyone else I have
offended.”
Sorry, that doesn’t cut it, not this time.
No one should be made to believe that
Williams didn’t know exactly what he was
saying, how he said it and how it would be
taken. He wanted one more time to take
event on. The same treatment should apply
to caddies. The PGA Tour and the European
Tour, if either or both had any sense of
justice, should have fined Williams heav-
ily and suspended him for a considerable
amount of time. But both tours have an-
nounced they will take no action, demon-
strating that they have no backbone, at the
same time tacitly condoning behavior that
any other workplace finds totally unaccept-
able.
