Internationals will not be joining protest
JERSEY CITY: The International team at this week’s Presidents Cup will not follow in the footsteps of NFL players who responded to criticism from US President Donald Trump by staging silent protests during the US national anthem.
Tony Johnstone, an assistant to International team captain Nick Price, said on Monday his squad of 12 players from around the world, excluding Europe, discussed the issue and decided it best not to get involved.
“We’ve had a unanimous agreement that none of us are Americans, so it’s got absolutely bugger all to do with us,” Johnstone said at Liberty National, where the biennial event between the International and US teams begins on Thursday.
“I don’t think we’re in a position to talk about it. Our view is we’re here to play golf, we’re here as sportsmen, we’re not interested in politics.
“What the hell does it got to do with us anyway? It’s an American thing. We’re just biting our lips. We don’t want to get involved.”
Johnstone’s comments came a day after dozens of NFL players, coaches and even some owners joined in silent protest at games against Trump’s call for owners to fire players who do not stand during the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
The protests began last year when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequities. No NFL team has signed Kaepernick for this season.
Johnstone is from Zimbabwe, a country that has had its share of political turmoil over the years, so he knows how it feels to hear foreign citizens lecture how his country should be run.
“If somebody came from overseas to my home country and started pontificating ‘you should do this, you should do that,’ I’d say ‘why don’t you get stuffed, it’s got nothing to do with you,’” said Johnstone.
Trump, an avid golfer, has not announced whether he will attend this year’s event, but either way it would be a shock if any American player protests during the anthem at the opening ceremony.
Johnstone’s advice to the American team was to steer clear.
“I just hope they don’t get any pie on their face and just leave it alone,” said Johnstone.
Geoff Ogilvy, perhaps more than any other golfer, is the man who stopped Phil Mickelson from completing a career grand slam, and now he hopes to help derail the entire American team at the Presidents Cup.
Ogilvy, an assistant captain for the International team, will try to impart to an inexperienced squad some of the knowledge he has gained both as an individual competitor and team player.
Regarded as a strong closer in his prime, the 40-year-old Australian posted an individual record of seven wins, six losses and one halve in three Presidents Cup appearances.
Not since 2005 have the Internationals led after the first day and the slow starts have sapped team morale as well as being costly on the scoreboard.
“What we need to do is be better on Thursday and Friday than we have been historically,” Ogilvy said in an interview.
“Every time I played and pretty much every one for the last six or seven (events) we seem to get trounced after the first two days and then we’re playing catch-up and the team room is a little bit flat.
“If Thursday and Friday go well then it almost takes care of itself. You create that vibe and atmosphere.
“When you’re in and about the lead you’re just more into it. Then it becomes a coin toss.”
The Internationals have managed only one win and one tie in 11 stagings of the Cup, and have lost all six times the competition has been held in the US.
Mickelson has been on every American team, compiling a 23-16-12 record, and will be a mainstay for the red, white and blue again when the biennial event starts on Thursday.
Ogilvy can hardly wave a magic wand and ensure a good start by the Internationals, but he will take good vibes back to Liberty National in New Jersey. The course, located against a Manhattan skyline, is only a few miles from where Ogilvy recorded the biggest victory of his career when he won the 2006 US Open.
He emerged as an unlikely victor at Winged Foot when Mickelson stunningly doublebogeyed the final hole.
It was one of six second-placings for Mickelson at the US Open, and the most painful.
The American, now 47, still needs the U.S. Open for a career grand slam, after winning the Masters three times, and the British Open and PGA Championship once each.
“If it doesn’t happen for him at the US Open, that’s the one he’ll look back on and think ‘I really did it let get away,’ but golf tournaments are 72 holes,” Ogilvy said, before wishing Mickelson well in his grand slam quest. – Reuters