What's the next creative pairing? Bald players? Short players? Those with tattoos? Players who wear tight pants? Visors only? Skin color? You get the idea. I guarantee if pairings were made by grouping players according to race, or sexual orientation there would be massive and major backlash. And there should. But why is this different?There's an old rule and as "stewards of the game," the USGA needs to be reminded of it: Never attack, tease, or point out a persons physical features. The USGA owes the threesome an apology. It's not cute. For anyone who battles weight, baldness, has a large nose, etc., it hurts. Even when we try to rise above such sophomoric humor it still hurts.
Someone in my church used to regularly comment on my baldness. It wasn't funny. It hurt. And it's a joke nearly everyone affirms unless they are bald, overweight, etc. Since cancer I still battle the "steroid weight" I put on during treatment. I know more than anyone else that I could stand to lose 25-30lbs. A year after treatment I was attending a funeral out of state. A woman who hadn't seen me in years actually said: "You've gotten fat!" Those were her first words, I'm not kidding. I wanted to say, "Well I see you are still wearing the same old wig." But I didn't. I smiled and thought about calling her out, but a funeral home isn't the place and I wasn't about to do to her what she had just done to me publicly.
Why do we feel it's okay to poke fun, or make light of someone's physical features? Humor at the expense of others is simply sarcasm. It's mean and it's not okay! Treat your neighbors the way you want to be treated. I've yet to meet anyone that wants to be the target of jokes, sarcasm, or wise-cracks.
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. - Matthew 7:12
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