In August, 2018, I posted this piece on my blog, “Are Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus Right–‘Respect the Office’?” It’s about Tiger Woods having then been asked by a golf writer about Donald Trump, “what do you say to people who might find it interesting that you have a friendly relationship with him?” It was because Tiger was friends with Trump and played some golf with him even though President Trump was accused of being racist and had been maligned about this by some high profile and black pro athletes in other sports, such as NBA player Labron James who called him “a bum.”
Tiger answered, “He’s the president of the United States. You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike the personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office.” This statement implies that there should be no criticism of Trump because he’s the president. But it also should balanced by the realization that Tiger Woods dad was a career U.S. Army man.
Jack Nicklaus was then asked what he thought of this answer by Tiger. Jack also is friends with Trump and has designed and built some Trump golf courses. Jack replied, “I couldn’t have agreed with Tiger more. Whether it’s Barack Obama or Donald Trump in the office of the president, you res
pect the office.”
Two months ago, I blogged, “Nicklaus Needs a Mulligan.” It was about Jack having made a bold and public endorsement of Trump’s reelection for president right before Election Day. Jack had said, “This is not a personality contest; it’s about patriotism, policies, and the people they impact. His love for America and its citizens, and putting his country first, has come through loud and clear. How he has said it has not been important to me. What has been important are his actions. Now, you have the opportunity to take action.” I thought my friend Jack Nicklaus had really screwed up by saying that, and that’s why I so titled the piece. And indeed, Jack was highly criticized for that afterwards, and he refused to say anymore about it when asked by the media.
Thursday, I also blogged about Golf Digest writer John Feinstein citing that that day, the day after the mob assault on the Capitol that President Trump incited, Trump then awarding the Medal of Freedom to pro golf stars Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player in person, and Feinstein calling for the PGA of America, and implicitly the PGA Tour, to cancel having the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Today, The Washington Post sports columnist Barry Svriuga penned this piece, “It’s time for golf to make a break with Trump.” He documents how amateur and professional golf in the U.S. are entangled with Donald Trump and his golf courses. Indeed, Trump is a businessman, and he knows that getting big golf tournaments on his golf courses is good for the Trump business.
In this article, Svriuga criticizes for Sorenstam and Player for not changing their plans and refusing to accept those honors from President Trump since he had incited the mob assault of the nation’s Capitol the previous day. I think that may be a little harsh. Sorenstam and Player are not U.S. citizens but from Sweden and South Africa, respectively. If they had been especially lifetime U.S. citizens, I could go along with what Svriuga is saying just like NBA star Stephen Curry and his Golden State teammates rejected President Trump’s invitation to be honored by him at the White House after they won the NBA championship that year. They had done that in protest of the President’s harsh criticism NFL players taking a knee during the playing of of the national anthem at NFL games in silent protest of especially recent police brutality exercised upon black people around the nation.
But I think both sports writers Feinstein and Svriuga are right, that golf should cut ties with Donald Trump especially because of how he so embarrassed our nation last Wednesday and, frankly, harmed our democracy. But I suspect that if those professional golf bodies–the PGA of America and the PGA Tour–don’t do what these men are calling for, the corporate world will force them to do so. From now on, corporate America will increasingly distance itself from the Trump brand because American consumers will require it. The only reason we Americans have enjoyed our freedom and way of life here is because our founding fathers established a democratic republic that works pretty well, and most of will want to keep what they established.
At the same time, I have blogged much about the greatest stain on America’s reputation, which is slavery. Wednesday’s mob scene involving white Trumpers assaulting our Capitol compared to harsh police treatment of Black Lives Matter folks this summer proves that the U.S. still has a lot of work to do to erase our racism that our founding fathers realized, embedding equality in our Constitution, but never much actuated it in their personal lives. Trump has set us back in this regard, and President-elect Joe Biden will move us forward. The PGA of America and the PGA Tour should follow suit by disassociating itself from Donald Trump, who I believe never believed in democracy (and here) and never rejected racism.
Finally, the Woods and Nicklaus argument to “respect the office” of the presidency, meaning to not criticize President Trump, is fallacious because it does the exact opposite by failing to protect the office. It is a lack of understanding the necessity in life of introspection and critical thinking. Moreover, Trump didn’t respect the office himself, doing the opposite of Make America Great Again, and he may pay the consequences for his undemocratic actions.
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