Is Augusta National being hypocritical when it comes to allowing Tiger to play at the Masters?
Hank Gola of the New York Daily News writes that Augusta National is being a tad hypocritical when it comes to Tiger Woods and allowing him to play at this year’s Masters.
As a past Masters champion and honorary Augusta member, Woods can play each April until his golf game grows cobwebs. Unlike with the PGA Tour, there is no precedent for the Masters to rescind an invite of any participant because of behavior off the course and the tournament does not have a “conduct unbecoming” clause.
In reality, however, Augusta National can do anything it wants to do with the Masters and while we’re not suggesting it pull the welcome mat out from under Woods, the club does look hypocritical.
After all, these are the same high-minded people who banned Gary McCord from the CBS broadcast booth because he dared to suggest the slick greens were “bikini-waxed.” By comparison, Woods’ alleged texts make McCord’s wisecrack suitable for a kindergarten class. They were, in short, pornographic.
McCord was a quasi-representative of the tournament and whatever Woods sent on his cell phone was meant to stay private. There is a difference there, but the hypocrisy remains.
I’m a little confused by the direction Gola took to get his point across. In the article, he specifically mentions porn star Josyln James’ decision to recently post alleged X-rated text messages between her and Woods. Then, Gola insinuates that Augusta National should ban Tiger the same way they did McCord because of said text messages.
But Gola could have cited the entire sex scandal to get his point across that Augusta National is being a tad hypocritical here. Why just mention the text messages when they’re just a small part of everything that happened? It’s like Gola just wanted to share the details of the text messages, had an axe to grind about Augusta National and just decided to combine the two things into one semi-meaningless article.
But I digress. I get Gola’s overall point but whether it’s fair or not, Tiger holds more clout than McCord when it comes to marketing the Masters to viewers. So of course Augusta National is going to allow Woods to play and not worry about being hypocritical when it comes to their ban on McCord. Millions of people don’t tune in to the Masters to listen to what McCord has to say. They mainly watch to see how Woods performs – whether he’s in the midst of scandal or not. That’s just the reality of the situation.
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I read his article yesterday and your’e right about Gola’s motives for writing this column. He counters his own point about McCord by saying Tiger’s messages were meant to be private and “There is a difference there, but the hypocrisy remains.” Really? That makes Tiger’s situation completely different. Those text messages were supposed to be between him and one other person. Sorry, but because he was cheating on his wife doesn’t change that fact, no matter how much Gola wants to satisfy the gossip feeding frenzy. Did Augusta go overboard in the McCord situation? Absolutely. But his lame attempt at humor was made on-air with millions of viewers watching. They have every right to take action in that situation. It makes you wonder if Augusta was looking for a reason to get McCord off the telecast for what seems to be a pretty mild comment. Other than be unfaithful to his wife, what did Tiger do to be banned from Augusta? If they even thought about it, CBS and ESPN would have begged them to reconsider because the ratings are going to be astronomical. But if a guy like John Daly, who has more personal baggage than anyone on the tour, even Tiger, (alcohol, drug, and gambling addiction, at least 3 stints in rehab, arrest for spousal abuse, and infidelity) is allowed to play at Augusta, nobody should be banned.