Justin Thomas, the talented young professional golfer, got himself into trouble out in Hawaii earlier this month. Although he might think he has taken the necessary steps to ameliorate the situation, I fear he may have just made a deal with the devil.

Thomas’ woes began on January 9th of this year during a tournament in which he was competing. Despite Thomas apologizing for his transgression after both the third and fourth rounds of the tournament and responding to reporters questions regarding the incident, one of his sponsors, the clothing company Ralph Lauren, announced within a week they had “discontinued their sponsorship of Mr. Thomas at this time.” The statement went on to say the company hopes “Mr. Thomas does the hard and necessary work in order to partner with us again – truly examining this incident, learning, growing and ultimately using his platform to promote inclusion.”

Apparently Mr. Thomas got the message. On January 25th, investment bank Citi announced that it had reached an agreement with Thomas in which they will maintain their sponsorship of him while “requiring him to donate a ‘meaningful portion’ of his deal as part of an active role in (these) causes.” Carla Hassan, speaking on behalf Citi, noted that while many of her colleagues felt termination was the only appropriate action to take considering the circumstances, Citi instead decided it was better to work with Thomas: “We considered terminating our relationship with him. It would send a clear and important message, but we decided to use this moment to work with Justin to try to create change.”

STICKS AND STONES…

What did Thomas do to elicit such a tidal wave of opprobrium? Did he assault another player or caddie during the match? Did he throw a club in frustration and hit a bystander? Did he beat his wife or girlfriend? Did he berate a rules official or spectator, hurling vicious slurs or epithets at them? No, No, No, and No.

Here is what Thomas did: After missing a short putt, Thomas berated…himself; he muttered to himself an admittedly ugly word, calling himself a “faggott”. A television microphone near the green picked up audio of Thomas’ self flagellation, and the public flagellation began.

I’m sure Thomas wishes he had used another “F” word instead. If he had, we’d have never known about it, and rightly so. It would not have created a ripple, never mind a tsunami. If you’ve ever played any golf, surely you can sympathize with the maddening frustrations it can induce. As Thomas’ outburst demonstrates, the most talented practitioners of the game are not immune from the game’s tortures. Sometimes in the heat of competition, they say bad things. Nearly always they are directing that salty verbiage at themselves or their long suffering caddie.

As already noted, Thomas, once he realized the comment had been captured for posterity, did not hide or ignore it. He apologized, twice, and answered any and all questions about it. He said a nasty word, no doubt, and then he expressed his sincere regret for using such language, even though it was in a moment he thought was private. And that should have been enough.

DANCING FOR DOLLARS

Unfortunately for Thomas, and for anyone in the public eye, the advent of around the clock, full spectrum media coverage, has coincided with the cultural dominance of a Progressive clerisy, whose lack of tolerance for any public transgression of its woke orthodoxy would make the Puritans blush. No doubt once we have the technology perfected, they will add private transgressions to the list. Look out Joe Six Pack. Impure thoughts shall not be tolerated.

Citi tipped their hand to this current reality in their statement, from which I quoted earlier. The statement appeared in a company blog post entitled, “When an apology is not enough.” Indeed.

I do not object to either Ralph Lauren Co. or Citi deciding to drop Thomas as a paid spokesman. They are both private companies. They have the absolute right to decide whom they will employ. They also have the right to dictate the conditions under which their employees must labor, up to and including requirements to publicly (at least for now…the private part may be coming) support whatever causes they deem worthy.

What concerns me is why Thomas decided to voluntarily accept those conditions. He is a very talented golfer who earns substantial sums from his performance alone. He is a paid sponsor for several other companies, who as of this writing, still employ his services. He could, unlike many of us, easily walk away. Instead, Thomas has agreed to become Citi’s organ grinder monkey.

JUST(IN) SAY NO

Maybe Thomas truly believes it is necessary for him to “examine this incident” and “learn and grow”. Maybe he feels he needs to protect his public image. Maybe he doesn’t want to forego the money. Maybe…probably…the truth is that some or all of these concerns are driving his decision.

However, I would advise Mr. Thomas to review Citi’s press release very carefully. Near the end it reads, “If at any point we feel Justin is not sincere in working toward this goal, we will end our relationship with him.” If he did not feel a chill go through him, like I did when I read that, then maybe he needs to look up the phrase “Faustian bargain”.

Either way, if I were Thomas, I would be saying thanks, but no thanks, Citi. I’m not ceding, to you or anyone else, the power to pass judgment on my depth of sincerity, my true motives, or my decency and basic human worth, based solely on how strictly I adhere to your preferred political or social orthodoxies.

I hope, whatever Citi is paying him, it is enough to support him and his family going forward. I think he may find it hard to earn much more money on the golf course. Success in the game of golf is notoriously fickle, and it takes incredible talent and drive to sustain a consistently high level of play. Its even harder when you have so many strings attached to you they start calling you “Pinocchio”.