Sacked golf official: Calling Ian Poulter 'lil girl' biggest regret of my life
Former PGA of America president Ted Bishop has reflected on the comment he made about Ryder Cup Europe hero Ian Poulter that got him sacked.
Former PGA of America president Ted Bishop has revealed calling Ian Poulter a 'lil girl' is the biggest regret of his life.
Bishop opened up on the comment that got him sacked in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Bob Harig.
In 2014, Bishop was removed from his post as the president of the governing body for what was described as 'insensitive gender-based comments' about the Englishman.
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Bishop labelled Poulter a 'lil girl' in a series of outbursts on his personal Twitter and Facebook pages.
He promptly deleted them, but the damage was done.
Bishop was reacting to the critical comments Poulter made in his autobiography, No Limits, about Sir Nick Faldo and Tom Watson.
Poulter condemned the methods they used during their stints as Ryder Cup captains.
For his part, Poulter said back then Bishop's broadside was 'pretty shocking and disappointing'.
He said: "Is being called a 'lil girl' meant to be derogatory or a put down?
"That's pretty shocking and disappointing, especially coming from the leader of the PGA of America. No further comment."
Bishop told SI that it was the 'biggest regret of my life'.
"Trust me, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it," he said.
"It's the biggest regret of my life. I felt like we did a lot of good things in those two years and it didn't end the way I envisioned.
"I've said this many times. I make no excuses. It was a bonehead move. It had been a rough few weeks after the Ryder Cup, and I just kind of got sucked into the moment. It was really unfortunate and unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it."
You can read the full interview here.
What did Ian Poulter say about Faldo and Watson?
Poulter's autobiography was published in 2014.
He was highly critical of Watson and Faldo.
Poulter said Watson's decision-making 'baffled' him.
"Most of us in the European team are astonished when we see the Saturday morning pairings and their names are not there," Poulter wrote, referring to Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley.
"It tells us that there are problems in the U.S. team room. There have to be.
"It's the only explanation for leaving out two players like that."
Poulter was also unhappy that Faldo later described Sergio Garcia, Europe's record points scorer in the biennial contest, as 'useless'.
Faldo was the captain of the losing 2008 European team.
He said Garcia had 'a terrible attitude'.
"Faldo has lost a lot of respect from players because of what he said," Poulter wrote.
"[2008] is the only Ryder Cup we've lost in the last 15 years. And he was captain.
"So who's useless? I think Faldo might need to have a little look in the mirror."
