Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word for Pettersen

My wife and I watched the Suzann Pettersen interview this evening.  We both had a hard time concluding, based upon what she had to say, or the way in which she said it, that she was, in fact, contrite and truly remorseful for her unsportsmanlike behaviour.

I think Laura Davies comments, along with the angry response from Annika Sorenstam at the time of the incident, says it all.  Those two icons of the women's game,who both hail from Europe, were disgusted with what happened, and that alone should tell you everything you need to know about it.

While the talking heads might still want to have Alison Lee share the blame for the incident because she picked up the ball, the fact remains the no one, with a proper regard for the integrity and etiquette of the game, would have acted as Pettersen did.

If the interview was an attempt by Pettersen to put this behind her, in my opinion, she failed miserably.  She did pay lip service to the fact that golf is not a "win at all cost" game.  But does she truly understand it.  Golf's greatest champions--Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez--would have never, for an instant, considered trying to win a match that way.  They would have had too much respect for the game and for their fellow competitor.

If Suzann is sorry about anything, I suspect it is only that this whole thing back-fired on her and her team.  It's a shame that she could not have been a bit more contrite and showed a bit more humility in the interview.  It certainly didn't strike me as an effort to publicly reaffirm what she had previously written.