Man the race headlines

What is the world coming to? Racist slur, racist storm, race row, demands for sackings . . . just a taste of the furore whipped up by Steve Williams' comments at the caddies' annual awards in Shanghai about Tiger Woods.

Williams, a Kiwi, has not been Woods' best mate since he was sacked last July after standing by the former No 1 through all the trials and tribulations of his sexual escapades. The caddie made some ill judged, unfunny off-the cuff remarks about his former employer saying his exuberant celebrations at an early win with new boss Adam Scott was because he wanted to "stick it up that black a******".

Now had it been another golfer he had wanted to stick it up a Welsh a****** for instance, or Scottish, ginger, fat, skinny, Texan, Korean, German, Ivy League or whatever the whole event would have struggled to have made it on page 93 under the wet fish prices in Grimsby in our glorious Press.

But because he said the B word, BLACK, the call went out in Fleet Street prime the indignant prose and man the race headlines.

Williams caddied for Woods through 13 majors from 1999 to July this year, which is a long time for a caddie partnership and you would have thought common sense would have told news desks that that was far too long for a racist and a Black American golfer to have had such a close working relationship.

A white golfer who refuses to caddie for a black golfer is racist, who refuses to use the same locker room as black caddies, same restaurant, same water cooler or whatever is racist; insulting or making fun of someone purely because they are black, that is racist.

But to hold a festering grudge against an employer who has sacked you and to describe him as black because he is . . . well . . . black might not be the most tactful, tasteful or telling of remarks.

It shows that the sacking still hurts but it hardly indicated Williams keeps a white sheet and hood in the boot of his car just in case he comes across a lynching.