Talking point: The state we're in

Guest article  - With golf hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, Derek Clements takes a look at 'the state we're in'.

YOU know that professional golf has reached a sorry state of affairs when John Daly, of all people, calls for Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia to kiss and make up. The Wild Thing did so in the following tweet: "Tiger and Sergio I respect both of you and your golf so much plz end this y'all are so good for golf". Precisely JD. Couldn't have put it better myself.

It is not going to happen of course. And what's the betting that Messrs Woods and Garcia will find themselves paired together for the first two rounds of the US Open at Merion?

Golf needs the events of the past week like it needs a hole in the head, of course. In the UK, the only time that the sport ever makes the news pages is when The Open Championship comes around, especially if it is played on a golf course that doesn't allow women members. This year's Open is being played at Muirfield. And guess what? It doesn't allow women members.

But the deeds and words of Garcia, who makes a habit of putting his foot in it and doesn't seem to know any better, and European Tour chief executive George O'Grady, who really should know better, meant that the media enjoyed a feeding frenzy at the BMW PGA championship. It is the European Tour's flagship event, but not that you would have known it.

Garcia and Woods have history, dating back to 1999 when a teenage Spaniard pointed at Woods as the US PGA championship came to the boil. Woods apparently thought it disrespectful of his young opponent, and took great delight in beating him.

In the years since then, there has never been much love lost between the pair, and it flared again at the Players Championship when Woods pulled a club while Garcia was playing a shot. The crowd whooped and hollered when they realised Tiger was having a flash from the rough with a fairway wood. Garcia carved his shot from the middle of the fairway into the woods on the right, later saying that Woods was an unpleasant individual and that nobody liked him. Not content with that, he then arrived at Wentworth and told the media that he would be happy to have Woods at his house for the duration of the US Open, and would be serving him fried chicken.

His remarks caused uproar, and he should have been penalised by the European Tour. A heavy fine at the very least. Instead, O'Grady announced that Garcia had said he was sorry, the matter was now closed and, in any event, most of his friends were coloured athletes. Coloured? For goodness sake George. Bang goes the knighthood.

Garcia's club sponsor, TaylorMade, appear to be taking things rather more seriously and have described his remarks as being "way out of bounds". He is a TaylorMade ambassador and stands to lose rather a lot if the company decides to pull the plug - about £5m a year, to be precise.

What on earth is wrong with the people who run this sport? O'Grady refuses to censure Garcia in any way, while Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, talks of a need to grow the game and find a way to get youngsters involved, and then refuses to penalise PGA Tour players who take five hours to play 18 holes.

On top of that, it seems that he is prepared to allow his members to flout the ban on anchored putters, due to come into effect on January 1, 2016, and stand by and do nothing while they go about introducing a "local" rule that threatens to tear professional golf asunder. It means we could have a situation when PGA Tour players continue using belly putters at every tournament other than the US Open and The Open Championship, which are sanctioned by the USGA and Royal and Ancient respectively - they also happen to be the game's rulemakers, who are also responsible for implementing the ban.

Peter Dawson, the secretary of the Royal and Ancient, refuses to condemn the likes of Muirfield and Royal St George's for refusing to admit women members, basically saying it is none of his business. None of his business? These courses host The Open Championship, run by the Royal and Ancient. But then Dawson is hardly in a position to criticise anybody since the R&A don't admit women either.

Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National, home of The Masters, talks about how enlightened the club now is because it has allowed women to join. Two women, to be precise. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and multi-millionaire business executive Darla Moore. Yes it's a start, but they are hardly what you would call "ordinary" women, are they?

Guest article from Derek Clements. 

Derek is a sports journalist with a particular passion for golf with over 12 years of experience covering golf and other sports including Chief Sub-Editor on the sports desk of The Sunday Times. To contact Derek email direct via [email protected]

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