And it shouldn’t be that way either.
After firing a second round 6-under-par 64 and entering the clubhouse as the tournament leader, Every was set to be interviewed by Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman. Little did he know what was about to explode. If you watched the interview live, you were almost stupefied. If you watched the interview on tape, you were almost dumbfounded. Why?
Apparently, the subject of Every being suspended by the PGA TOUR for a period of 90 days seemed to be the pressing matter. In 2010 while preparing to play in the John Deere Classic, Every and two other men were charged with possession of a controlled substance. He posted bond and was released. Every’s management released a statement where Every denied possessing any controlled substance (in this case, marijuana), but cited poor judgment. Every apologized.
Here we are 18 months later…and the issue is brought to the forefront. 18 freakin’ months. It’s not so much on how the interview was conducted. (Words I saw on Twitter ranged from “awkward” to , It’s more of a matter of the pressing for a blurb. If anyone knows anything about Every, if you ask him a question, you will get a honest answer without fail. Here’s an Every quote in a piece about when he won the Ben Hogan Award (via About.com’s Brent Kelley).
"“People think Pablo Martin should have won. That’s crap,” states Every, who tied for 64th place in the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on the PGA Tour. “I don’t care. I won. He wasn’t exactly a shoo-in to win. In amateur golf I killed him.”"
Then, the presser…
"…I was pissed at the way it was handled. I don’t know. I don’t do drugs. It was a crappy deal, man. Wrong place, wrong time, perfect storm, and you know, I got three months out of it. It’s over with. I’m not mad at the Tour. They did what they had to do. I totally understand it. But it’s over with.”"
After all the hubbub about the Tilghman interview and Every’s presser, I thought about one of my favorite golf blogs, Wei Under Par. I’ve been reading Stephanie Wei’s golf blog for a couple of years. I thought if anyone would have anything to say about this, she would. After checking my Twitter timeline for a deluge of Every related tweets plus taking a bit of time to digest all of this, I went to Wei Under Par. I was not disappointed.
Wei not only has a video of the Tilghman interview on her blog, but she also approached Every herself. If Stephanie is on the property, I would expect nothing less. Here’s a brief excerpt…
"I asked if he (Every) would have answered differently had he been prepared for the question.“No, I answered pretty honestly,” said Every. “I’m probably getting crucified for not being politically correct, but whatever. It’s so dumb.”"
Part of what Wei is referring to, as she mentions in her post as well, is that no one affiliated with the broadcast mentioned a couple of poignant facts about what happened that fateful day at the John Deere and afterwards.
One, the charges were dropped. Every never had to appear in court. Two, per the statement issued (which I referred to earlier) at the time of the “misgivings”, Every denied possessing weed or even smoking it. Three, Every was suspended for “conduct unbecoming” of a PGA pro, not for any drug-related charges. Just so you know, the PGA does have a testing policy.
Obviously, there’s no real issue here, but apparently there is.
Yes, it’s over with and, quite honestly, should have never been brought up. As Every noted, the situation that led to his arrest was “the perfect storm”. Every “did his time” of 90 days. Why can’t it just end there? If you think about it, Of those that were watching the second round, I wonder how many people were even aware of what happened back in 2010…until it was brought to light that is.
And that was unfortunate. And I won’t crucify you, Matt. No one should.