For those who don’t follow the game of golf or for those who simply missed it, 27 year-old golf professional Bryson DeChambeau shot the lights out on Friday at the BMW Championship just outside of Baltimore, Maryland.
DeChambeau’s round was so spectacular – including two eagles and eight birdies – that he was on the verge of becoming the first person in golf history to break 60 on a course over 7,400 yards. Even though he just missed his six-footer for the 59 and the new record, his play electrified the thousands of golf fans at the event and mesmerized the golf world.
Well, at least most of the golf world.
After the round, I clicked onto the Golf Channel to read more about DeChambeau’s jaw-dropping mastery of such a long course. Unfortunately, the headline which greeted me was:
“Bryson DeChambeau nearly flawless on Friday, until after his round.”
Until “after his round?” What happened then?
For those who also don’t know, the Golf Channel is owned by left-of-center NBC, and like its parent, can lean left at times as it inserts more and more political opinion into its coverage of golf.
Such was the case with this story written by Brentley Romine.
I have no idea whether Mr. Romine is liberal, conservative, or agnostic when it comes to politics. It is his right to be any of those things. That said, his column certainly seemed to indicate a tilt to the left. Which again, is his right.
Of late however, for some on the Left, it would be fair to say that the wearing of masks and the taking of the vaccines has become a bit of a religion.
For me, I strongly support the position of those who choose to wear masks and take the vaccines just as I strongly support those who choose not to do so. That is – or at least should be – their right as American citizens.
Which brings us back to the Golf Channel taking a deliberately cheap shot at DeChambeau after a masterpiece round of golf. The writer and the network seemingly doing so only because DeChambeau also exercised his individual right not to talk to the media after the round. A media where a number of writers have gone after him regarding his “controversial” statement regarding the Covid vaccine.
And just what was that “controversial” statement?
Approximately one month ago and just prior to the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and after having to withdraw from the Olympics after testing positive for the virus, DeChambeau said in part:
“The thing is, the vaccine doesn’t necessarily prevent it from happening. That’s where for me, I’m young enough, I’d rather give it to people that need it. I don’t need it. I’m healthy. I’m a young individual that will continue to be healthy and continue to work on my health. But I don’t think that taking a vaccine away from someone that could need it is a good thing…As time goes on, if it’s mainstream – like, really, really mainstream – and everything is vetted out, yeah, I don’t have an issue [getting vaccinated].”
Pardon me, but what part of that statement is “controversial.”
It seems pragmatic, logical, and wisely cautionary in its outlook.
While much to all of Big-Tech and the media seems to be in the business of censoring any and contrarian views or concerns regarding the Covid vaccines -- no matter how impressive the medical and science degrees of those simply trying to ask “What if…” – the fact of the matter is that the vaccines don’t prevent the virus and there are an increasing number of cases within the fully vaccinated community.
Again, I happen to support the rights of all Americans to either choose to be vaccinated or not. Unfortunately, as we have also seen, some who have chosen to get vaccinated – most especially in the media – have decided to turn on the unvaccinated and paint them as either “anti-vaxxers” or outcasts to be shunned.
Bryson DeChambeau made a personal choice not to get vaccinated. But to some in liberal media, liberal sports, and the liberal twitter world, that was akin to a crime and he had to be castigated and outright smeared for exercising his right as an American citizen.
Like most of the mainstream media and academia, sports coverage and golf coverage has gone more left with each passing year. As many in the editorial and reporting positions at these liberal sports networks strongly believe in the vaccines – which again, is their right as Americans – some are seemingly using their platforms to lecture or shame those who might dare to disagree with them.
The fact that millions of Americans turn to sports coverage to try to escape the never-ending mental stress of the pandemic and our nation’s growingly poisonous politics, seems not to matter to them in the least.
This past Friday, Bryson DeChambeau put on a golf clinic of epic proportions. The coverage of that round should only have been about his golf. It was not.
While they won’t be, the writer and the Golf Channel should be ashamed of themselves for needlessly taking a biased and cheap shot at a golfer after such a glorious and inspiring sports moment.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and an author.