"Golf should immediately distance itself from the man Donald Trump"
“The PGA of America changes venue at the 2022 PGA Championship, you take it away from Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey. Announce it today and clarify it once and for all: we don't want to have anything to do with the next ex-president Donald J. Trump. " Thus began the editorial by John Feinstein, one of the most listened to pens in the sports world with stars and stripes, on the online GolfDigest.
The appeal comes within hours of the assault on the Capitol which cost the lives of five human beings. The call to distance ourselves from the even more powerful man on Earth has no political reasons. “It is no longer a question of which side to stand on, who we voted for. We are faced with a man who has encouraged - almost ordered - his supporters to attempt some kind of coup against the United States government. A man who, even after finally telling him it was time to leave the Capitol after the death of a woman and damaging the Capitol, tweeted to them: "I love you, you are special."
Enough with "we are golfers, we do not do politics"
Our sport is not without faults: on the fingers of both hands we can count the professionals who have put their faces to distance themselves from episodes of racism or violated human rights.
“Golf could have done more in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor and the Black Lives Matters movement. There are, of course, those who will compare the events on Capitol Hill to the riots caused by the BLM movement. We will never defend any kind of violence or destruction, but the comparison does not hold up here. This was an attack on the United States of America, an attack instigated by the President of the United States. It was unique, historic and terrifying ”.
"The NFL has proved its players right"
The article continues by retracing some episodes that occurred in recent months. “In recent months even the NFL, with its largely white and right-wing fan base, has publicly supported the players who chose to protest and apologized for how they handled the Colin Kaepernick case in 2016 and the protests during the anthem of 2017 ″.
“Golf is the whitest of multiple sports, in terms of players, media and fans. Golf is, without a doubt, also the most right-oriented sport. Had the 2020 elections been limited to the PGA Tour, there is no doubt that Trump would have won easily. Icons like Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson have supported Trump with great enthusiasm ”.
Then a broadside also to Gary Player and Annika Sorenstam who, less than 24 hours after the assault on Capitol Hill, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump as announced in recent months. According to Feinstein, the two golf champions shouldn't have done it to prove that golf is not deaf to everything around it. "Of course Tiger Woods could have done it in 2019 - he says - but that would have been a political, coherent but political gesture". Politics has nothing to do with it today.
Golf, take a hit after Donald Trump
Finally Feinsten remembers how in the past the PGA of America was sensitive to what was going around it. The reporter cites Hall Thompson, president of Birmingham's Shoal Creek Club, who explained that a black man would never be admitted to his club, home to the 1990 PGA Championship. The PGA immediately moved to look for another club capable of hosting the major. Thompson moved accordingly, opening the doors of Shoal Creek to a black businessman.
A choice certainly not spontaneous and even less sincere but in fact capable of marking a turnaround. It was a turning point, it was the demonstration that PGA Tour *, PGA of America and USGA * did not tolerate discrimination. At the Augusta National it took him longer to get a woman in but in the end he gave in too.
"Today we are facing another possible turning point: staying away from the man Donald Trump, not from the political Donald Trump. Thus it will become clear to everyone that anyone who incites violence for any reason in any future situation is not welcome in golf ”.
