Was Steve Williams disrespectful of the flag on Saturday?

[TakeDeadAim]

my neighbour was wearing a t-shirt with an american flag on its back the other day. the poor guy tripped over a step and fell on the floor... The unrespectful bastaaard. I should have shot him right there for stomping on the flag...

[iacas]

my neighbour was wearing a t-shirt with an american flag on its back the other day. the poor guy tripped over a step and fell on the floor... The unrespectful bastaaard. I should have shot him right there for stomping on the flag...

Shoot the people that made the t-shirt instead. The flag isn't supposed to be on t-shirts.

http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/faq.htm#q031

Source: Flag Code The Flag Code states that the flag should never be worn. (Section 8d): "The flag should never be used as wearing apparel."

Also, flags that touch the ground shouldn't be burned - they should be moved so they're no longer touching the ground. Heck, that's even on Snopes .

[pjsnyc]

Shoot the people that made the t-shirt instead. The flag isn't supposed to be on t-shirts.

Thanks for that! Learn something new everyday

To answer the OP - I don't see the big deal if he didn't mean any harm. Plus, these are finely manicured greens! If the American flag touched the ground, I'd prefer it be the greens at Congressional

[kris]

Shoot the people that made the t-shirt instead. The flag isn't supposed to be on t-shirts.

my god, so many rules...

[Iowa Hawkeye]

I think that the foreign players and caddies have a respect for American tradition these days. For example:

On Big Break PEI, even the Canadian and International players talked about how they respected Aaron (US Navy) for his service. Could have been faked because Golf Channel told them to, but I believe that others have respect for the US.

[youngskip40]

Some things I've read here that I like/agree with:


Steve Williams is not an American, so you can't really expect him to observe or even know about flag etiquette. Would it have been nice, especially given that the caddies were allegedly given a memo about how to handle the flags that day? Sure. But more than likely, what does Independence Day mean to him? Nothing. To him, it was just another moving day.

Steve Williams was certainly not the only caddie to let the flag touch the ground that day. I saw it several times on air.

You SHOULD have respect for the flag. If flag etiquette goes right over your head, then read up on it, you might learn that it is important especially to people that serve/have served the country. I can understand how simple things like not letting it touch the ground or not leaving it out in the rain can seem bizarre and nonsensical... but so do simple things in golf etiquette when you first start playing, like never walking through the line or an extension of the line of someones putt, or making sure your shadow is clear of their line. Sure seems like common sense now that you know about it, right? You'd probably get aggravated if someone stepped right in your line before your putt, even if they didn't know they did anything wrong. It's kind of like that.

I thought the flags were pretty cool. I thought it was a nice touch for that weekend's tournament. Also, I loved that they let military personnel and children in for free.