Masters Chairman Billy Payne Admonishes Tiger, Oversteps Bounds

As Tiger Woods' first tournament after taking time off to deal with his sex addiction, the 2010 Masters Tournament will undoubtedly receive even more press coverage than it normally does. Augusta chairman Billy Payne has wasted no time getting his name on the front page of ESPN.com as he had very harsh words about Tiger before he has even teed off.

Payne, who has been the chairman for the Augusta National Golf Club since 2006, used his annual Masters press conference to chastise Tiger Woods for his personal misgivings, even going so far as to say that he "disappointed all of us." Payne also made sure to talk about how Tiger's career will be measured more on how he fixes his personal life than how well he plays on the golf course.

What purpose do Payne's comments serve? Ever since Tiger crashed his car and admitted to repeatedly cheating on his wife, Elin, every single aspect of Tiger Woods' life has been hyper scrutinized by the media. Do we really need the chairman of the 2010 Masters Tournament to add his two cents?

Is anyone sitting at home going, "I was going to let Tiger's personal failings slide, but now that Billy Payne has admonished him, I'm going to hold him to higher standards?" It seems much more likely that the response of casual fans will fall along the lines of, "Who is Billy Payne?"

Payne's chastising of Tiger is more than a little ironic, considering he is chairman of a club that did not have an African-American member until 1990. 1990 was also the year the PGA Tour made it a requirement for all PGA Tournament hosts to prove that they did not discriminate on the basis of race or gender. There are still no female members of Augusta.

One would think that Augusta National, which still can't shake the image of being a "white man's club," would be more than willing to let bygones be bygones. Instead, Billy Payne decided to use his time playing morality police when he could have just said, "I hope Tiger plays well this weekend."

Billy Payne would probably be better served trying to find a way to make Augusta National a friendlier place for people of all races and genders than taking cheap digs at Tiger. Not only were his statements unnecessary, they paint Payne as the same moralistic, clueless old white man that limits the popularity of Augusta National and the sport of golf in general.

I, for one, can't wait for Tiger to actually hit the golf course on Thursday, if for no other reason than to put the focus of media coverage back on his game, and not his personal life. Until then, Billy Payne should keep his opinions to himself.

Source(s):

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/masters10/news/story?id=5063768

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/11/sports/augusta-national-admits-first-black-member.html