AUGUSTA -- Being president of Augusta National Golf Club isn't easy, nor is dealing with Juan Antonio Samaranch. And Billy Payne has had to deal with both.
At present, he occupies the chair at Augusta, which means he is the presiding figure of the Masters Tournament. When he ascended to that high-profile position, he occupied a place that often is the target of much criticism.
The latest shots came from George Vecsey, who is a friend, or was before I composed this somewhat review of a column he produced in the New York Times. George laid into Billy Payne with all the venom his computer could produce, which did not set well with me. For Billy Payne is a friend, too, and one of longer standing.
"Billy Payne, the grand pooh-bah" (I didn't realize there was such a position at Augusta National), delivered a mean-spirited lecture about the ‘private' life of Tiger Woods."
Private, my eye! Tiger's life has become about a private as one of a royal family, and much less palatable.
Otherwise, how does he explain all those women who have come forth claiming flaming sexual exploits with him?
We continue here with Vecsey: "Other members in attendance did not rush up and sedate Payne, or slap duct tape over his rude mouth ... they let him continue. Ol' Billy probably wasn't saying anything the other men in green jackets hadn't thought."
Oh, I passed over this biting charge from Vecsey, that the club president would not have spoken in the same vein about a white player.
It has been a territorial habit of big-city newspapers to aim their snappiest sneers at Augusta National. Why George Vecsey fell into the time-worn habit of Gotham troubadours dismays me.
Perhaps he found something sinister in this observation: "Our hero didn't live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children," Payne said. Or maybe he overlooked Tiger's own self-incrimination, though he has been speaking more of golf lately, than of his own despicable behavior.
Thankfully.
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