In Wake Of MJ Incident, Governing Bodies Need To Look At Courses That Actually Enforce Cargo Short Ban
Anchoring, schmanchoring.
The game is doomed if we keep kicking people away for wearing...gasp...shorts with pockets on the outside!
After reading ESPN Chicago's follow up to the much tweeted story about Michael Jordan's ill-fated from Miami's La Gorce CC, there is no better evidence for golf's image issues and overall neuroses than this...
"I've been there many times and no one told me a thing," Jordan told ESPN Chicago by text. "Then all of a sudden they come to me on the 11th hole and say I can't wear cargo shorts. Wow! The round is almost over and you want me to buy shorts now? Yeah, right!!"
A spokesman from La Gorce Country Club said their president was on vacation and declined comment at this time. An employee in the pro shop said that required attire is: "a collared shirt and golf shorts or pants, no cargo or denim. If there are pockets on the outside, it's not allowed."
Because people hide their knives and wads of tip money in those outside pockets, never on the inside!
It's not that we're doomed by the no cargo shorts rule, it's that this is not unusual at a country club to send some poor employee out to bother a Hall of Famer mid-round and tell him to get "proper" shorts or leave. Embarrassing.
Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 08:40 AM
Reader Comments (50)
Would that golf course refuse to let Langer play in his cargo pocketed pants that he was sporting the past few seasons?
if the rules are there (whether they are stupid or not) thye should be applied equally to everyone, regardless of race, gender or sporting prowess.
I remember having to tee off 10 minutes late (at 7am) because James Worthy was late for his tee-time.
I am sure the group behind me would not have had to wait if I was late.
For all I know James Worthy might have been happy for us to tee off in front of him but as long as people change the rules for "stars" their attitude to life will never change.
I actually disagree with Amen Coroner. If there's a dress policy and it's well published ... then you should respect it. If you don't like it then you can raise it and address it with the club to have it changed. Until that happens, respect the club's dress policy.
The big problem however appears to have been inconsistency. If MJ had cargos before and nothing was said, but now it's an issue ... then that's the club's damn fault.
LRH
Have to wonder whether this is La Gorce's way of trying to become "the club that's so exclusive MJ got banned"
Give me a break. They could have handled it much differently.
Some people can't even spell "flexibility".
GoPM, bingo on LACC!!
It'll go down 1 of 2 ways. MJ (in this example) will know that staff is caught in a bad spot because he sees member A-H. (True story - in my example the 2 were 75 feet apart on the driving range) MJ is cool about it with staff and knows that Member A-H has some issues. The other way is less fun, MJ basically tells staff to cork screw himself and now it becomes a nice little tiff between 2 rich people, with the $10 /hr guy getting most of the bullets.
Like I said, been there, it's BS.
Or it may have been one of the rules "on the books" that are seldom/never enforced unless someone wants to prove a point. (dress code gray areas, cart exit posts, changing into golf shoes in the parking lot, etc.)
When you get rid of the pleats you have to do something with the leftover material. Do you wipe your boogers in your pleats or do they have another use?
I wear all sorts of stuff that wouldn't fly at Pantiesinawad CC. But, of course, I'll never be found there either. Cue Groucho Marx.
And as far as I'm concerned, MJ ought to be able to go into a golf resort dressed as the Oscar Meyer weinermobile if he wants to. You get to be Michael Jordan, or Larry Bird, or Jerry West etc, that comes with the territory if you ask me. At least it traditionally has. I guess we're changing in that way, & I don't know that I care for it, because I've always said if I ever got rich that would be the #1 thing I'd like the most about it, having the influence to be above such petty rules.
LRH
Because a guy can throw a ball in a hoop better than me; or because I have been more successful than someone else, doesn't matter to me.
I have always felt we have the same rights.
Each to their own I suppose.
I keep coming back to the Phil Collins story in the early 80s. The Rompus Room in Chicago IL wouldn't let him in because his jacket, to their view, wasn't up to par. It angered Phi Collins, who was typically a very easy-going sort of person. He talked about it on Johnny Carson & the such. This is the thing--when he did so, people weren't going "oh great, another spoiled rich brat thinking he's above the rules." Instead they agreed with him, & the restaurant had a huge egg on their face about it. They apologized to him and even mailed him a complimentary jacket for future visits. I mean come on--it's Phil freaking Collins, & you're going to deny him entrance over a jacket?
I know things change over time, but that change--where we go from that to calling someone like him "a jerk who thinks he's above the rules" is a change I don't like. I mean, what's the fun in becoming rich & influential if you have to drudge behind all of the nonsense like this? Half the reason, I think, to become rich is for the very purpose of being able to circumvent such nonsense.
LRH
Jordan knows better. The ignorant masses don't.
I guess I just don't understand why having lots of money entitles you to break rules others have to follow.
But yes--to me, it's just common sense, if Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Phelps, Warren Buffet or Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) walk into a place, it's the most natural thing in the world to give them special treatment, and for them to EXPECT it. They're more noteworthy--not more important, but more noteworthy. Otherwise, why are we even talking about them in the first place? After all, if you or I were banned from a golf resort, no one would care. If MJ truly is no more important than we are, then why are we reporting on him like he's special?
It's like I said too--as for me, I don't sit around all day wishing I was rich so I could buy a BMW or the Biltmore Estate, but I can tell you, if I were to hit it rich, I would just LOVE to be able to shimmy around some of the silly rules imposed on us as a society. That's the whole point--a lot of these rules, and I would consider this rule to be one, are just stupid, but most of us aren't in a position to challenge them. Michael Jordan is, & I applaud him doing just that. And heck, even if it were just me, you better believe I'd find it silly that they're bothering me on the 12th hold about something so stupid, something they had always been okay with me doing dozens of times before.
That's the point to me--obviously we live in a society not an anarchy, but they really do seem to come up with some stupid & ascinine rules in a lot of areas of life, and they don't have the common sense to judge context & circumstances with enforcement. A good example--a few years ago I was at a lake that didn't allow dogs, leashed or otherwise. I was there with one other person, & they had brought their dog, apparently not knowing. The dog was very well behaved & I had no problems with it bothering me any at all. The lake warden zoomed to her & ordered her to leave now or else, basically. It seemed silly to me: she & I were the only ones there, the dog was well-behaved, & he could've responded in some other way such as letting her stay or clarifying what the rule was for NEXT time, rather than going off on his power trip.
That very sort of insanity--you better believe, if i was rich, it would be practically my mission in life to oppose it every chance I could. People could hate on me for being a self-centered rich pompous jerk, I could care less.
LRH
Is that you Stewie Rah Rah?
That's "couldn't" care less, btw, LRH. Keep buyin' those PowerBall tickets. You just might get lucky.
Two, MJ has probably worn them to exclusive places before but the clubs chose not to make a fuss.
Three, the genius at this club who decided it was best to make an issue of it mid-round should not be allowed near any guests. Full stop.
Best to mention it after the round and very privately. I understand the argument about the rules applying to everyone but tact is key.
Four. People ranting about different treatment for rich people usually comes off sounding like sour grapes. Bad form.
That my rant!
LRH You sound like someone that thinks rules are for everyone else, not you. George Carlin once had a funny skit about people like that.