(September 2014)–Many times over the course of my long career covering golf tournaments has the game been overshadowed by other current events on the sports scene. Most of them have involved scandals too juicy to remain circulating around the water cooler.
If social media had been in vogue back then those storms would have been upgraded to level 5 through a tsunami of public opinion.
There was the case of Tim Donaghy (pictured left), the NBA referee who resigned from the league in July of 2007 prior to reports that the FBI was conducting an investigation into allegations that he had bet on games he officiated during his 13-year career. By August, he had pled guilty to two charges related to the investigation and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison a year later.
His demise dominated the conversation among the golf media, too, most of whom were old beat writers who cut their teeth on a variety of sports. The controversy’s staying power lasted from the time the story broke straight through the Tour Championship at East Lake GC, won incidentally by Tiger Woods.
Back in 2001, a young Latino baseball pitcher named Danny Almonte led his Bronx, N.Y., team to the Little League World Series, hurling a perfect game, no-hitter and one-hit shutout in a dominating performance. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani awarded him a key to the city. Numerous other accolades were heaped on the young, national hero.
(Left, baseball pitcher named Danny Almont)
Shortly after the final out of his series-concluding game on Aug. 30, the left-handed ace’s age was called into question via a report in Sports Illustrated. The discovery that Almonte’s age exceeded the eligibility limit by two years produced a scandal (his team had to forfeit all of its games) that rumbled throughout most sports arenas the rest of the summer into autumn.
For professional golf, that included premier events like the Tour Championship, held that year in Houston and won by Mike Weir.
Once again the sports world has been transfixed on not one but several scandals that detracted from the season-ending Tour Championship. Already the victim of Tiger’s bad back and Phil’s bad game, which sucked a measure of excitement from the annual climax to the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the TC had to fight for attention with Ray and Janay Rice’s domestic violence drama, Danny Ferry’s racially charged comments and allegations that Adrian Peterson applied a switch or some other object so forcefully to his 4-year-old son’s behind as to cause injury to the youth.
As if football season wasn’t enough of a show-stealer.
The scandals have equal weight in a universal perspective. All are serious offenses.
Even when threatened with physical violence, a real man should never hit a woman. He is morally obligated to show restraint. Our young men—and even some graybeards—would be wise to follow a slight modification of the old-school adage: “If you can’t get along, get on.’’
In the case of Danny Ferry (pictured left), the Atlanta Hawks general manager who took an indefinite leave of absence after unwittingly repeating a racially insensitive evaluation of then-free agent forward and Duke University brethren Luol Deng, you would think a product of Duke would know better. Perhaps a fall from the Hawks’ front office to the outhouse will give him pause.
If I have empathy for either of the offenders it just might be Peterson, the bionic running back for the Minnesota Vikings. First, I was reared in a household that staunchly believed in “spare-the-rod, spoil the child.’’ My parents handed out corporal punishment like lollipops to their four children on a daily basis or so it seemed. And we were considered fairly well behaved children.
I don’t know if the occasional spanking is effective parenting or not. I won’t lie. I am a believer in corrective measures when it comes to disciplining one’s children. How else do they learn to respect authority? I wasn’t a “time-out’’ parent.
However, I do know that parents should never cross the line of physical abuse. We must protect our children at all costs. They deserve at least that.
It would be scandalous not to.
ABOUT PETE McDANIEL
Pete McDaniel is a veteran golf writer and best-selling author. His blogs and books are available at petemcdaniel.com
Comments on this topic may be emailed directly to Pete at: gdmcd@aol.com
