Patrons who walk into the pristine, serene environs of Augusta National Golf Club during Masters Week fall into one of two categories. The first group, the vast majority, appreciates the club’s calm beauty and decades-long traditions. The second looks around and thinks, How can I [expletive] with this?
The first group will enjoy a memorable day amid the Georgia pines. The second will get thrown out onto Washington Road in a hurry, as Wayne Player has discovered.
Player, son of three-time Masters winner Gary Player, drew nuclear heat at last year’s Masters for holding up a sleeve of golf balls during a ceremony to honor Lee Elder, the first Black man to play in the Masters. He [expletive]ed around and found out that Augusta National doesn’t play, and now, a year later, he’s spoken up about the experience.
“To be completely transparent,” Wayne Player told Golf Digest, “I think it is a cool story because you know, the National never really came out formally and said, ‘Oh, we’re, you know, not allowing Wayne Player to come back to the Masters.’ They never ever said that to the media. That’s just the way they do it. They don’t say much.”
Serving as his father’s caddy, Wayne Player held up a sleeve of OnCore golf balls — horizontal, logo clearly visible — as Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley paid tribute to Elder. The ceremony was a powerful one — Augusta National is actively trying to atone for its sins of the past — and when Wayne Player turned it into the equivalent of a NASCAR postrace interview, criticism flew.
“I had probably 50 texts after that, 40 of them said I’m a marketing genius, 10 were like, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’” Player told Golf Digest. “It wasn’t premeditated, but it was a tacky thing.”
Outside the confines of Player’s phone, that ratio more than reversed. Wayne Player said even Jack Nicklaus, who was at the tee alongside Elder and the Players, asked, “What are you thinking?”
Augusta…
Source : yahoo
