Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

[Brandenburger Toro]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

That was fantastic.

His win reminded me a great deal of Fuzzy Zeoller's, 30 years ago - Fuzzy, similarly, never led on his own during the final day and was two behind a man who had led all day long with two to play, only to bogey the last two and then lose the playoff at the second. That man was Ed Sneed, whose ultimate defeat is still remembered as one of the Masters' great chokes. I hope history is kinder to Perry.

Since history has been very kind to Francis Urban Zoeller this week, I feel the need to point out that Cabrera is dissimilar in not being a racist fucking asshole.

As my pro-golfer BIL2B put it last night, "It's widely known on tour that Zoeller is one of the most pleasant and charming guys around - he just doesn't like black people very much."

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

One little quirk of Cabrera's win is that the last 8 majors (i.e., the ones that "count" in the current world rankings) belong to just 4 different players - Harrington (with 3), Woods and Cabrera (with 2 each) and Immelman (last year's Masters champion).

When Tiger did the "Slam" in 2000-01 (and won 5 out of 8 in the process), naturally the other 3 majors surrounding that feat were won by just 3 different players - Stewart, Lawrie, Singh, Goosen, and Duval, depending on where you start and finish counting Tiger's wins.

I think it's only twice before that the most 8 recent majors have been won by as few as 4 players. When David Graham won the 1981 US Open, he, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros and Jack Nicklaus had each won 2 of the last 8. And in 1971-72, Nicklaus and Trevino won 3 each while Charles Coody and Gary Player won the other two.

[Bored Of Education]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

Fuzzy Zoeller bows out as well. Maybe not as many testimonies

Zoeller's extremely tasteless "fried chicken" gag at Woods' expense a few years ago might be a reason for that. Even the arch conservatives of the Augusta committee were embarrassed by that.

That's what I was referring to however I don't know much about golf

[Brandenburger Toro]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

It's weird that the "fried chicken" part of itios the most notorious.

What he actually said was "He's doing quite well, pretty impressive. That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. He's doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it... or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."

"They" and "boy" are a good deal more offensive, to my eyes.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

Er ... Woods WAS a "boy" in 1997, he was 21 (Zeoller was 45).

For those wondering what this is about, Fuzzy Zeoller had been renowned for years as golf's great joker, right out of the Lee Trevino mould. Unfortunately, as with many "jokers", once his audience warms up, his mouth carries on running, which is what happened here. Zeoller was clearly making a joke to a packed press tent about Woods' age, and then let himself run slam into the wall of "hey, they're laughing at me characterising Woods as a little kid, what else can I get away with here". I don't think it would even have been noticed as a "racist" remark to point out that American teenagers do, believe it or not, like to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken (the context here is that last year's champion gets to serve his favourite food to the members of Augusta National at next year's champions' dinner, held on the eve of the tournament - when Nick Faldo won first he brought over the owner of his local chippy to serve them Fish and Chips), had he not added the collard greens reference.

He's spent the rest of his life apologising for that remark, btw.

[Wyatt Earp]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

I don't think it would even have been noticed as a "racist" remark to point out that American teenagers do, believe it or not, like to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken...

Come on.

[G-Man]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

Heh, Gary Player was an apartheid apologist in the same way that Nelson Mandela advocated putting bombs in shopping malls.

FFS.

Wow, non-sequitur of the decade.

Player was not a stick-wielding racist, of course. Within the apartheid élite, he was more liberal than many. Which is what they said about the awful Nick Koornhof (famous for saying at, I think, the UN: "Apartheid are dead") or Pik Botha. As a famous golfer, he made statements about the undesirability of a universal franchise. Even though, I'm sure, some of his best friends were black.

He was, and still is, politically naive, but he did make apologist statements. He has apologised for making these statements; tellingly, only once apartheid was defeated. And he has done fine developmental work since, to his credit.

But I can't work up much affection for the guy, I'm afraid.

[Guest]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

Apart from the fact that a 21-year-old is demonstrably not a boy, the word "boy" is a very loaded term to address a black man by in America, for historical and sociocultural reasons which should need no further explanation.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

In Georgia, as a set-up to a gag about fried chicken and collard greens.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

Apart from the fact that a 21-year-old is demonstrably not a boy, the word "boy" is a very loaded term to address a black man by in America, for historical and sociocultural reasons which should need no further explanation.

All of the latter part of that is true, I'm sure, but I would say a 21-year-old in golfing terms very much is a "boy", or indeed a "kid", as with the current comments about the equally precocious Rory McIlroy, the "kid" from Northern Ireland (who is almost 20 himself). I'm not trying to be a Zeoller apologist here, but I think it's a stretch to imply that calling Woods a "boy" in itself was a "racist" remark at the time. This was a 21-year-old golfer winning the Masters, for heavens sake - we'd never seen the like of this before. The youngest winners in history before Woods were Ballesteros at 23 and Nicklaus at 25, and very few other Masters champions in its 70-year history have been aged under 30.

When Woods won in 1997 it was simply flabbergasting - more so, I'd say, that he'd won as such a young player, than because he was black. His predecessors as champions were Nick Faldo (aged 36) and Ben Crenshaw (aged 43). The closest player to Woods that year was Tom Kite - easily old enough to have been Woods' father, aged 44.

[Guest]

Farewell, then, Black Knight and White Shark

it's a stretch to imply that calling Woods a "boy" in itself was a "racist" remark at the time.

No, it isn't.

Go to America and call a black man -- of any age -- "boy" and see what kind of a reaction you get. It will not be a positive one.

And all that other shite about chicken and collard greens -- no way in the world would Zoeller have said it about a white golfer.