Tattlers In Tizzy Over Donald's Digs

Charles Sale, writing for the august Daily Mail and apparently speaking for select members of the British press, reports that Luke Donald's jabs during the annual Association of Golf Writers' dinner Tuesday night have "caused a considerable stir" with the people paid to dish out jabs.

Donald, making his acceptance speech in front of the game’s top brass at the Association of Golf Writers’ annual dinner at Royal Lytham, chose the occasion to be chippy in the extreme about the tabloid press who had helped vote him top golfer of the year.

Oh the irony!

However, Donald, who wrote the speech himself rather than relying on his IMG management team, claimed yesterday that he must have been misunderstood by the critical audience.

He said: ‘I was just trying to be light-hearted. I’ve no problem with the British press. I get on well with them and was trying to reflect that. It seems some people have got the wrong impression.’ They certainly have.

I was in attendance Tuesday night and though Donald showed restraint, even freezing up early into his talk as he looked at his notes and appeared to reconsider some of his planned remarks. This, in contrast to his appearance at the Golf Writers Association of America dinner in April where he brought down the house with a series of good-natured jabs directed toward the American press, who responded by...laughing.