Tiger may be in the title of a controversial new book but Woods had nothing to do with the intense debate about the role of journalists vs. golfers’ privacy that the tome ignited on Golf Channel on Thursday.
Controversial book about Tiger Woods’ successors sparks heated debate
LPGA Tour player Paige Mackenzie finds Shane Ryan’s new book about the rise of the next generation of PGA Tour golfers “disgusting,” while sportswriter Damon Hack defends the work for its “keen observations.”
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For his book, Slaying the Tiger, Shane Ryan spent the 2014 season covering the PGA Tour to profile members of a new generation of golfers who grew up idolizing Woods, and are now regularly replacing the aging superstar at the tops of leaderboards. Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and reigning Masters champion Jordan Spieth were among the fiery, ambitious and sometimes resentful subjects Ryan explored.
Ryan orchestrated a great deal of advance PR when, pre-publication, he released an excerpt about Reed’s alleged checkered past. While Reed’s history entered the discussion among host Gary Williams, Damon Hack and Paige Mackenzie, Ryan terming Bubba Watson a hypocrite when it comes to his religion really heated up the Morning Drive set.
“There’s no louder Christian on the PGA Tour than Bubba Watson and in my opinion, no bigger hypocrite,” Ryan, claiming Watson -- who’s on-course temper tantrums are legendary -- did not live his beliefs, said in an earlier segment of the show.
What was particularly engaging about the talk that Ryan’s unexpurgated opinions ignited on Thursday -- and no doubt will continue to do so within the golf community for months to come -- was the extremely disparate way in which journalists and their subjects view a reporter’s function. Ryan’s angle was “disgusting” to LPGA Tour player Mackenzie, while Hack, a veteran sportswriter, defended the author’s take on telling stories that round otherwise “cardboard cutout” athletes into actual human beings, warts and all.
“He has some very keen observations, especially on Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson,” contended an animated Hack, who noted that Ryan “nailed” it when he opined that Spieth’s negative emotions would not hinder him. “He was right. A year later he turns disappointment into his first major championship at 21.
“I think he was very, very sharp in a lot of his observations of PGA Tour players,” said Hack, who sought to clarify what journalists are paid to do.
“Our job is not to root for players. Our job is to write stories ... to flush out these characters as best you can,” he said. “I think a lot of people are confused by what the media’s role is.”
Mackenzie, who contended that writing about personal issues, like the rift between Reed and his parents that occurred long before the four-time tour winner turned professional, found such tactics offensive.
“I was frankly disgusted by a lot if it,” an emotional Mackenzie said. “It’s impossible to understand the complexity of a player standing outside the ropes. I don’t care if you’re there for 10 years ... To put blanket characterization statements, the way that he did on some of those players, is disgusting in my mind ... I’m disgusted by a lot of what he had to say.”
"I owe you to be a good role model on the golf course and do the best that I can. I do not owe you my past." -Paige Mackenzie
It’s an argument that probably began when the first journalist carved words into a stone and posted them in the town square, and it has no end in sight. Those of us who pound keyboards for a living are prone to agree with Hack, who wants to know “what fuels Patrick Reed to have this chip on his shoulder ... what made these people who they are (and why) they’re so competitive and so hungry.”
Which is not to say that journalists’ “truths” are completely objective, since there really is no such thing when human beings are involved. Hack noted that Watson’s rebuffing of Ryan when Ryan attempted to interview Watson may have colored Ryan’s coverage.
Readers who sympathize more with Mackenzie -- and how could some not after the heartfelt arguments she made? -- were likely to nod vigorously when she explained what really galled her about Ryan’s reporting.
“When you start attacking family and religion, the things that hold dearest to a player’s character and person, that’s what I have a problem with,” she said. “That’s where I don’t feel like an athlete or celeb or anybody in the spotlight owes to the public.
“I owe you a professional job, I owe you to be a good role model on the golf course and do the best that I can,” Mackenzie averred. “I do not owe you my past.”
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