Famed Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, notified its membership this week in a letter that it has suspended PGA Tour pro golfer and U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark for getting angry and damaging two lockers in its men’s locker room about a month ago during the conducting of the U.S. Open golf championship at its club. This makes the PGA Tour look bad, and rightfully so. During the entire history of the four major golf championships in the world, they have been held at Oakmont C. C. more than at any other venue in the U.S. (I think it’s ten.). Thus, that’s almost like doing the same at The Masters.
Oakmont C. C. Letter about Clark Locker Damage
Golf Digest just published the letter by the Oakmont Board to it membership which reads as follows:
“Several of you have inquired about the situation involving Wyndham Clark and the steps being taken in response to his recent behavior. Following multiple discussions with the USGA and the OCC Board, a decision has been made that Mr. Clark will no longer be permitted on OCC property.
“Reinstatement would be contingent upon Mr. Clark fulfilling a number of specific conditions, including full repayment for damages, a meaningful contribution to a charity of the Board’s choosing, and the successful completion of counseling and/or anger management sessions.”
Accountability
As far as I know, this is an unprecedented disciplinary action in professional golf. I fully concur with this letter. Soon after the incident happened and photos of the locker damage circulated in social media, I thought there needed to be disciplinary action no matter whether Clark admitted his infraction, but even more so that it included required anger management as this letter states. But that is something that the PGA Tour has never done, as far as I know. This needs to change for the sake of the PGA Tour’s integrity. Of course, this raises the question, “What about other pro sports?” Angry displays are more evident in them than in the so-called “gentlemen’s game.”
Good question. I don’t know. But it needs discussing. Pro athletes are models for youth, whether they like it or not. They should be held accountable for their angry actions by their peers, such as players’ associations, as well as the association’s administrators.
Admission of Wrongdoing & Disciplinary Action
Two things should have happened soon after this incident took place. First, Wyndham Clark should have very soon after his display of anger acknowledged the fact to the Oakmont C. C. membership, the USGA (United States Golf Association), and the PGA Tour membership, all of which he defamed by his outburst of anger, and apologized for it. But it took him a week before he did that, which is inexcusable. And this was not the only display of anger by Mr. Clark at a PGA Tour tournament that caused damage. He did it at the PGA Championship this year, throwing a club that damaged a tee sign. Folks, I never heard of Jack Nicklaus throwing a golf club in competition as a result of anger.
Moreover, Clark’s apology repeated again last week at the Genesis Scottish Open was open to criticism. The first sentence was right. But the rest of it was not, in which he labored at explaining that his Oakmont outburst was a result of his poor play this year. That is no excuse whatsoever, and he should not have belabored that point as he did. Yeah, he said why it happened, but everyone knows that. He’s too caught up in being successful. That is why I think the PGA Tour’s discipline for an infraction like this should be some time off of the Tour.
Secondly, the PGA Tour should have very soon made an announcement acknowledging that it happened and that it was considering disciplinary action and then carried through with some serious form of discipline. Now, if the latter would have happened, that raises the question about whether or not such ill behavior has been happening other times by other PGA Tour members, and it just doesn’t get into the media like that did. Well, if that is the case, the PGA Tour needs to do some serious introspection resulting in an effort to protect its integrity in the world of golf. In other words, the PGA Tour needs to be consistent in disciplining its members when their anger results in something like this.
To make matters worse, I guess you could say, Mr. Clark is a professing Christian. I don’t know if he attends the Christian meetings on Tour, that is, the weekly meeting of the PGA Tour Bible Study, but if so that group should have been applying some pressure on Clark to “fess up.”
PGA Tour’s Integrity Is On-The-Line
It now remains to be seen what the PGA Tour is going to do about this, if anything. The PGA Tour’s integrity, in my opinion, has been unraveling of sorts in recent years over slow play that hurts the game of golf in general. But the Tour cannot let something like this pass, as if it never happened.
PGA Tour pros are guests at these golf clubs when they participate in PGA Tour tournaments (although the U.S. Open is not owned by the PGA Tour), and they should be required to act accordingly. The PGA Tour now looks laggard in the conduct of its affairs by failing to have taken disciplinary action against one of its members when it was obvious that this should have been done.
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