Was Steve Williams disrespectful of the flag on Saturday?

big o fan · July 6, 2009

While watching CBS's coverage of the AT&T; National on Saturday afternoon I noticed the flags were US flags instead of the regular tournament flag. I thought it would be hard for me to resist the habit of pulling the flag out of the cup and dropping it on the ground if these flags were used instead of typical red, blue, or whatever color flag is attached to the pin. Some time later I noticed Tiger's caddy with the pin propped on his shoulder and the flag on the ground at his feet. I've not heard anyone mention it since and did not hear the announcers talk about its appropriateness or lack thereof at the time. I wonder, at Tiger's tournament, should his caddy have been more careful with how he treated our country's flag (although it's not his country)? Did anyone else notice this? If so, am I overblowing the issue? Is noone saying anything because it involved Tiger? Did other caddies / players have similar instances of treating the pin like they do on any other day instead of July 4? I'll stop now.

**nico002** · July 6, 2009

Yes he's a terrorist. Kill him.

**denver_nuggs_15** · July 6, 2009

While watching CBS's coverage of the AT&T; National on Saturday afternoon I noticed the flags were US flags instead of the regular tournament flag. I thought it would be hard for me to resist the habit of pulling the flag out of the cup and dropping it on the ground if these flags were used instead of typical red, blue, or whatever color flag is attached to the pin. Some time later I noticed Tiger's caddy with the pin propped on his shoulder and the flag on the ground at his feet. I've not heard anyone mention it since and did not hear the announcers talk about its appropriateness or lack thereof at the time. I wonder, at Tiger's tournament, should his caddy have been more careful with how he treated our country's flag (although it's not his country)? Did anyone else notice this? If so, am I overblowing the issue? Is noone saying anything because it involved Tiger? Did other caddies / players have similar instances of treating the pin like they do on any other day instead of July 4? I'll stop now.

I'm pretty sure the flag is supposed to be burned on Flag Day now. I'm not completely positive, but I seem to remember if a flag touches the ground, burning it properly is the thing to do.

I played at a course with American flags and some military flags on the pins. We didn't put the pins on the ground and propped them against our bags instead. I think it's kind of ridiculous and somewhat disrespectful to put flags on golf pins, but that's probably just me. It's golf... it's not worthy of having a flag (and the ideas it represents) involved with it. It just bothers me a little. I'm sure Steve Williams wasn't the only one though who put down the flag.

**RemyM** · July 6, 2009

I'm pretty sure the flag is supposed to be burned on Flag Day now. I'm not completely positive, but I seem to remember if a flag touches the ground, burning it properly is the thing to do.

The flag should be kissed if it touches the ground. It doesn't get burned until it is ripped or severely worn.

**sacm3bill** · July 6, 2009

I'm pretty sure the flag is supposed to be burned on Flag Day now. I'm not completely positive, but I seem to remember if a flag touches the ground, burning it properly is the thing to do.

Not true:

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/flagday/burnflag.asp

...It doesn't get burned until it is ripped or severely worn.

Burning is not the only acceptable method of disposal (see above link).

**iWALK18** · July 6, 2009

I am kindof shocked nobody has made a big deal out of this, but pleasantly so. I think not letting the flag touch the ground is nice but its really not something to get all twisted up about, especially in a non-political/governmental/official setting. Maybe he should have been given a reminder about it, but going media crazy about it would be over the top.

bdr55a · July 6, 2009

i agree, it's annoying to have the flag involved at all, considering the pin is typically purposely laid on the ground all day long.

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/shag-b...th-july-30529/

**kfowler** · July 6, 2009

If they wanted the flag to be treated as respectful as if was on top of the White House, they shouldn't have put it on a pin. There's no rule about putting the pin on the ground so we shouldn't start one just because there's a US flag on it. I thought the course looked pretty cool and I had no issue with it.

Just because I let the flag outside my house occasionally touch the ground doesn't mean I love the country any less.

**Franco!** · July 6, 2009

Oh my god.
Does it really matter?

**flanagan** · July 6, 2009

While watching CBS's coverage of the AT&T; National on Saturday afternoon I noticed the flags were US flags instead of the regular tournament flag. I thought it would be hard for me to resist the habit of pulling the flag out of the cup and dropping it on the ground if these flags were used instead of typical red, blue, or whatever color flag is attached to the pin. Some time later I noticed Tiger's caddy with the pin propped on his shoulder and the flag on the ground at his feet. I've not heard anyone mention it since and did not hear the announcers talk about its appropriateness or lack thereof at the time. I wonder, at Tiger's tournament, should his caddy have been more careful with how he treated our country's flag (although it's not his country)? Did anyone else notice this? If so, am I overblowing the issue? Is noone saying anything because it involved Tiger? Did other caddies / players have similar instances of treating the pin like they do on any other day instead of July 4? I'll stop now.

If a flag becomes destroyed or beyond cleaning/repair, the recommendation is it be burned. There is no requirement a flag be burned just because it merely touches the ground.

You are really overblowing this issue. The only conspiracy I don't see suggested is whether Stevie shot JR.

On a personal level, I don't really care if they want to use the American flag for pins, but I see the point of those who may be moved to concern (just maybe not to the level of suggesting they are getting away with something). Perhaps some flag bearing insignia of the armed forces might be a good substitute, but with the tournament being focused on D.C. and around the 4th of July, would expect them to keep using the U.S. flag on the pins.

**CG031** · July 6, 2009

Oh my god.

I was kind of thinking the same thing. If I were a caddy, I may have done it by accident...which I'm sure he did.

Don't think it's a big deal - really far more important things to worry about in the World right now than whether or not Tiger's caddy was disrespect of the flag because it touched the ground a few times.

**flopdarock** · July 6, 2009

i think he did it out of force of habit and didnt realize it was disrespectful...
most of the time when pulling the flag you lay it on the ground...
hold it upside down or in your hand so as not to flap in the wind...
im sure he wasnt the only caddie that did it...
plus they should have had some kinda meeting or memo reminding them...
it was on the independence day holiday and the tournament name and course all kinda tied in to having it flag related

**Grndslmhttr3** · July 6, 2009

Who the hell cares?

**bunkerputt** · July 6, 2009

I'm guessing it wasn't overtly disrespectful, but I do think it matters, particularly on that tournament and on that day. Not because following some flag handling procedure to the letter is important, but because there were servicemen and women there who are very important. And how you handle the flag is certainly important to them, though maybe not to Joes like us. It would have been nice of him to make the extra effort in case some of them were watching. Otherwise, I'm glad no big deal was made out of it.

**J_Bone** · July 6, 2009

He's not an American, so I don't think he even gave the flag any thought. But since he did it, we should Stone him!!

***iacas*** · July 6, 2009

He's not an American

Yeah, that's the first thing that came to my mind.

I still wish he had not done that, though. I'm one of those people who kind of dislikes that people don't take their hats off for the National Anthem at hockey games (not everyone of course). I wish he hadn't, it bothers me a little that he still did this (they sent or posted a memo to the caddies to be careful about this), but in the end I really don't care as he's not a citizen.

**cmarkmyers** · July 6, 2009

No, it doesn't.

But Stevie wasn't the only one doing it. Every single caddie and some players layed or dropped the flag on the ground. It may be technically the wrong thing to do but no one read that much in to it. Besides, one of the purposes of the tournament was to honor service members - people with more of a right to complain about flag treament than the rest of us - and I didn't see any of them feeling less honored due to the flag touching the ground.

Way to single out one players caddie though.

**microcrayfish** · July 6, 2009

Yeah, that's the first thing that came to my mind.

Exactly, he's not a citizen and he didn't do it on purpose to offend or disrespect so why get upset? To be honest, he'd probably have done the same thing had the New Zealand flag been atop the flag stick because as a national symbol our flag doesn't rate highly at all (polls range from 30-35% in favour of changing ours). The reverence that Americans have for their flag seems almost irrational to many people around the world. It's a piece of fabric on top of a stick to mark where the golf hole is and you can't expect Williams to treat it any differently that he would his own nation's flag.

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