Misogyny Loves Company

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving...

In drafting Thursday's 137th Ryder Cup post I had meant to include a silly item involving Ted

Bishop, President of the PGA of America.  The reader will hopefully recall that on the Friday broadcast from Gleneagles, which by now feels like the Mezozoic Era, Sir Nich Faldo called Sergio Garcia "Useless: on the 2008 Ryder Cup squad that Nicky helmed.

Now that Ryder Cup took place in the aftermath of Sergio being dumped by Greg Norman's daughter and the favored Euros were soundly beaten by the likes of Ben Curtis and Boo Weekly, but until now there hadn't been much blue-on-blue violence.  But Sergio's current teammates were outraged on his behalf and made their displeasure with Faldo known.  And in his just released autobiography, Ian Poulter attempts to settle the score on behalf of the Spaniard:

"Faldo has lost a lot of respect from players because of what he said. There were plenty of things a lot of the players were unhappy with at Valhalla but none of us criticised him. He may find that begins to change now.”

When your opponent is fighting, the best thing to do is to pull up a chair and enjoy the show.  But this is all pretty mild stuff in the cosmic scheme of things, the more so because Poults seems really to be motivated by protecting a teammate.

Now Mr. Bishop enters stage left,  with this tweet:

There was also this Facebook post:

"Used to be athletes who had lesser records or accomplishments in a sport never criticized the icons. Tom Watson (8 majors and a 10-3-1 Ryder Cup record) and Nick Faldo (6 majors and all-time Ryder Cup points leader) get bashed by Ian James Poulter. Really? Sounds like a little school girl squealing during recess. C'MON MAN!"

Now a quick detour in the story to demonstrate how life imitates performance art.  Having heard only that he deleted the tweet and Facebook post and apologized, I managed to escape the office on Friday afternoon and headed out to hit a few balls and maybe play a few hole.  As is my practice, I walked through our pro shop and asked Kunta Kente if he wanted to come out.  His response was that "It's kind of cold", even though it around sixty degrees out.  You see where I'm headed with this, don't you, as I instinctively called him a little girl and offered to let him play from the red tees.  I make no claims of originality, it's just in the nature of how boys talk to other boys. 

So imagine my surprise to find out that Bishop was fired a mere 30 days before the end of his two-year term.  And not just fired, but he is to be expunged from the record books in a manner befitting Leon Trotsky after his 3&2 loss to Joe Stalin in the 1924 Vladimir Lenin Succession Round-robin:

Bishop said that in addition to being removed from office, the PGA of America has told him he would not be allowed to become the Honorary President or be recognized as a Past President. "Today, all I have left is my PGA membership and that will always mean the world to me," Bishop said

Really?  We're treating this as a hate crime, are we?  

Another slight digression to remind ourselves that people have been falling all over themsleves to congratulate Bishop on his consequential term.  We had this fawning profile of him in Golf Digest, in which he was characterized as a "Disruptor," presumably meaning that as a compliment.  It was there that Pete Bevaqua, CEO of the PGA, had this to say about his good friend Ted:

"(He was) the right person at the right time” while saying “the way he's wired helped us get things done that would otherwise not have gotten done,”

Now Pete is saddened....because you know, diversity, inclusiveness, yada, yada, tada....

I like this reaction from NFL Commish:

When reached for comment on the firing of Ted Bishop as President of the Professional Golfers' Association of America, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell reacted with shock. 

"Seriously?" Mr. Goodell said. "He called someone a 'lil girl'? That's all? That's it? I mean, sure, his termination is merely symbolic since his term is almost over, but still, seriously?

 Now your humble correspondent has never been much of a fan of Mr. Bishop, who has always seemed to me the Chuck Schumer of golf (the signature characterization of Sen. Schumer being that the most dangerous place in the world is between a microphone and him.  Thus I was quite bemused by the attempts at hagiography, which included credit for his "Principled stand against the banning of anchored putter."  I'd be willing to stipulate that that stand was principled if someone could only explain the principle involved..  To me the USGA and R&A treated him as an unwanted gnat to be flicked away dismissively, but per haps your mileage varied.

But having angered the PC Gods, folks are now free to say what they think (or to pile on, depending how you see things).  Steve Pike at The "A" Position won't be getting a Christmas card from the Bishops:

In the past – under the autocratic regimes of past PGA Chief Executive Officers Jim

Awtrey and Joe Steranka – presidents were kept on tight leashes. Bishop was tough to tame. He said what he thought – regardless of how ill-timed or moronic – and apparently believed the role of PGA president was that of some kind of powerbroker. He went head-to-head with golf’s true powerbrokers, including PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson, and always came out looking like a junior varsity benchwarmer playing against the varsity. 

Often in the past two years Bishop appeared to be more interested in furthering his own career than furthering the cause of his organization and its 27,000 members.

That's pretty much how I see it, though I would have avoided the "M" word.  James Corrigan is never without an opinion, and here's a few of many:

It is funny, however, that Bishop did not revert to name-calling when Phil Mickelson

delivered his withering critique of Watson's captaincy techniques in the immediate aftermath of the 161/2-111/2 defeat at Gleneagles last month. That's because it was Mickelson, and Bishop would never put down the popular left-hander, even if he thought he was being disrespectful. Ah, Ted still wants to be friends with Phil. 

That tells you everything you need to know about this official, whose term is blessedly in its last few months. If truth be told - it will not be - the PGA of America cannot wait to be shot of this wretched self-publicist. 

During his two-year tenure he has gone out of his way to grab the spotlight, choosing to take on the R&A and USGA through the media with his opposition to the long-putter "anchoring" ban and lending his association's support to some crackpot scheme to make the game more appealing by enlarging the hole to 15 inches.

Geez, James, tell us how you really feel.   There's quite a bit of speculation to be found about his motives, the logic seeming to be that his defense of Faldo relates to the abuse his captain took in the aftermath of the Gleneagles Götterdämmerung.  I'll leave that determination to the team of forensic psychiatrists currently en route from Vienna.

I'll close with my favorite little sound bite from the matter, from prospective PGA of America officer Suzy Whaley.  Whaley is only the second woman to qualify to play in a PGA Tour event (the first was the female Babe), and Shack quotes her as reacting thusly on Golf Channel:

“For me to hear comments that are derogatory about young girls, or insulting, just because you are a girl, is offensive,” Whaley said. “Our board of directors took swift action. The PGA of America finds it quite critical to be inclusive and we will continue to do so moving forward.”

Was his comment derogatory about young girls?  That's certainly not how I took it, but we're all such delicate flowers these days... Or maybe misogynists just stick together.

We can all agree that his comments were juvenile and ill-considered.  But while I've never been a fan of the man, isn't making him a non-person an extreme sentence for a petty crime?