An elected official called me today and left an angry message that ended with this question: "Why do you hate Greensboro?"
And he was serious.
He was upset because he thought the newspaper was disrespecting the Wyndham Championship. He didn't like a story we wrote praising the caliber of the field because, he said, it implied that previous fields weren't good. And he didn't like the illustration of Carl Pettersson dressed in paper-doll clothes with the story about how golfers choose their outfits. (Hey, with no one playing golf yet, we have to write about something.)
"He's the past champion of the Wyndham and you put him in that? Everyone in the clubhouse is making fun of it," his voicemail said.
I like the idea of publishing a story and illustration that catches people's attention and creates buzz. The Sports section, after all, is one of the places in a newspaper where you should be a bit provocative; people like to trash-talk sports. True, some things we do appeal to a certain sensibility. But having some fun with -- not making fun of -- a local guy made good to illustrate a story on fashion doesn't seem out of bounds. (He goes through 250 shirts and 40 pairs of pants a season.) To be fair and even funnier, we could have used John Daly, I suppose.
In the end, I think we have been pretty gung-ho on this year's Wyndham. We've published a great deal about the tournament over the past week and obviously have more to come.
But really, why do I hate Greensboro?
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