Posted on 02/16/2005 8:35:38 AM PST by subterfuge
Paul Casey, an Englishman who lives in Arizona, returns to the PGA Tour this week after undergoing counseling to deal with the fallout from his derogatory comments about Americans.
Casey said in an interview with The Sunday Times of London in November that he learned to "properly hate" the Americans during the Ryder Cup. He also said U.S. fans can be "bloody annoying," and the vast majority of Americans don't know what's going on in the world.
Casey later said he didn't need to apologize, only explain what he meant by his remarks.
"The players I spoke to about everything that had gone on showed understanding. But it was all the people to whom I couldn't give an explanation that concerned me and prompted me to get professional help," Casey said in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph.
Casey made his PGA Tour debut at the Sony Open last month in Honolulu, where he missed the cut at 9 over par and got a cool reception from some of his peers. He withdrew from his next two tournaments.
"This whole mess is entirely of my own making, but as everyone will understand, I have to be able to put it behind me at some point," Casey said.
He is playing in the Nissan Open in Los Angeles this week, then the Match Play Championship outside San Diego.
Scrutiny increased when, after the story appeared in The Sunday Times, the Daily Mirror wrote a headline with Casey saying, "Stupid Americans: I Hate Them." Casey was never quoted in the Times as calling Americans stupid.
"I don't think anyone has been more affected and upset than I have," Casey said. "The hurt I've caused will live with me as a huge source of regret for the rest of my life."
Casey played at Arizona State, has an American girlfriend and swing coach and still lives in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"I've always cared deeply about the country and will continue to do so," he said.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1282193/posts
May he bogey every hole.
No apology, no tickee, imo.
A counseler that gets people to love Americans?
Can we send him to the Middle East next? (Then maybe to France.)
How dumb is this girlfriend?!
He may be right albeit not in the sense he intended, fortynine percent voted for Kerry, and once you add the clueless who did not even vote, indeed a majority of American's may not know what's going on in the world.
So what is the explanation for the comment? Did he offer one?
Similarly, people complain that Americans only focus on tragedies that include Americans. I was in Japan when the SwissAir flight went down off of Canada and it was not really a big story in Japan. Why? Because no Japanese were involved. Every country does that sort of thing. It's a way to filter information so that people don't get flooded with details that just don't matter to their lives. And, surprise, most people are more worried about what happens in their own country and to the people from their own country than about other countries and people in other countries.
What does it say about HIM that he is a SUBJECT of a decayed and obsolete monarchy. Talk about NOT knowing what the hell is going on in the world. Dude, Kings and Queens are soooooooooooooooo 14th Century!
And he received professional counseling? Hope he can get his money back.
Ah yes, counseling and an apology.
The universal answers to all problems
The man stated an opinion
Nobody has to like it
Just cause people don't like what they hear is not a reason to send someone off to the sensitivity training gulag and coerce an apology out of them.
I get so sick of this knee jerk reaction to anything that is not so PC Bland that it has all the impact of a ball of shaving cream
I think we should expand this issue to some of the sports magazines.
I am so tired of people from other countries lounging around in the U.S. smart mouthing off at every opportunity about what he// it is living here.
Hope he bogies and sand traps through life and I'll enjoy cheering when he drops out after the first cut at the Ryder.
If international golf competition hasn't taught this guy some diplomacy - he should be run outta the country.
It's enough to make me want to go watch him play with an airhorn in my hand...:)
Agree 100%!
You are so right about the number of Americans who do not know what is going on in the world (much less our own Congress). They are ignorant because they choose to be ignorant.
It is one of those double standard moments...we can say it--no one else can. Especially foreigners who think we are annoying. LOL!
I know what you mean, only we can talk bad about our family; if an outsider does it, well that's different.
A lot of people don't like what he said.
I don't particularly agree with it either, but he doesn't owe me an apology for it.
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