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CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- Heard the one about the Japanese golfer whose white caddie confused him with his Asian playing partner?
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Folks at golf's largest governing body have.
Proving that the elitist golf establishment in America hardly owns a monopoly on bad taste, pious attitudes and overtly racist behavior, a member of the storied Royal & Ancient Golf Club on Tuesday night told a series of off-color jokes at a journalists' banquet in Carnoustie that left those in attendance shaking their heads in disgust.
Graeme Brown, a member of the R&A rules of golf committee, was invited to speak at the annual banquet of the Association of Golf Writers, an organization with 70 years of history. Those who attended said Brown started his remarks with a well-received impression of Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros, then reeled off a series of mostly failed jokes that included derogatory characterizations of Southern blacks and Asians.
One punchline about Asian golfers included the pejorative term "nip," which caused a large groan from the audience, attendees reported.
Adding fuel to the fire, after learning of the remarks the following day, the R&A declined to demand Brown's resignation. As for its considerable constituency, the R&A is golf's governing body everywhere outside North America, including Asia. The organization annually stages the British Open, which begins Thursday at Carnoustie Golf Links.
"The situation is, we've got two things here," said Martin Kippax, chairman of the R&A's championship committee, when asked why Brown had not been forced out. "Graeme Brown is a good golfer and he's a very knowledgeable individual with regards to the rules of golf. And he's a very useful member of our rules committee.
"What happened last night is something that is quite independent."
Well, except that he's a member of the R&A brass, a group that apparently make the folks at historically exclusionary American clubs look like social progressives. Speaking of which, one of Brown's jokes included a mocking imitation of a black caddie at Augusta National, guests said.
The R&A has approximately 1,800 members around the world, but no women. Though the journalists' group was in no way responsible for Brown's incendiary remarks, the U.K.-based writers' association on Wednesday issued a written statement in which its members apologized "unreservedly" for the content of the commentary.
Peter Dawson, the executive director of the R&A, did little to improve the situation Thursday when he failed spectacularly to distance the organization from the remarks. Dawson said that because Brown was a guest invited "in a private capacity" by the writers, he was not representing the R&A, per se.
"We all know Graeme Brown very well and I can say absolutely that he is certainly not a racist, as an individual," Dawson said.
No, he just comes across as a member of a xenophobic fraternity -– as a group. His address also included sexually related comments that many judged to be inappropriate. One attendee said that Brown offended everybody but homosexuals, who somehow escaped his attention.
