AUGUSTA, Ga. – On the day Tiger Woods arrived at the Masters, he changed out of his spikes after playing nine holes, walked across the parking lot and went upstairs to the office of Augusta National chairman Billy Payne.
Payne would not discuss details of their Sunday afternoon meeting.
Based on his blunt criticism of Woods during his annual press conference Wednesday, they probably weren’t talking about how Woods was hitting the ball or his chances of winning a fifth green jacket.
“It is simply not the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here,” Payne said. “It is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.”
They were the strongest words from a Masters chairman since Hootie Johnson’s famous “point of a bayonet” reply to Martha Burk in the summer of 2002 when he defended the club’s right to an all-male membership.