Lorne Rubenstein | |
Stephen Ames, A Different Type of Guy
April 4, 2006
Allright, you think you know Stephen Ames. You've decided he's a blowhard, noisemaker, politically incorrect, somebody who doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut even when the subject is Tiger Woods, and that the tipping point for you came when he said on the heels of winning the Players Championship that he might not play in this week's Masters.
Photo © Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images | Stephen Ames was the surprising winner of the Players Championship. |
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You're right on one count, in that the 41-year old Trinidad and Tobago born Ames, who lives in Calgary and is now a Canadian citizen, is often politically incorrect.
Well, good for him.
We in the media and you who read us often criticize golfers for saying nothing, even if takes them a lot of words to say nothing. Many ink-stained wretches, well, computer-tappers, ripped David Duval for years because he hid behind his sunglasses and didn't say much.
Then, when Duval did a dance around a green after making a putt at the Ryder Cup, some folks decided he looked foolish and unnatural. And when he says something we don't like, well, and you, make it known that we don't like it. We, and you, pout. We want him to be all things to all people. He's damned if he doesn't open up and damned if he does.
Photo © Michael Price | Ames after winning the Players Championship. |
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Then there's one Tiger Woods. He said nothing when he could have said so much in that 60 Minutes "interview" with Ed Bradley on that aired March 26th. Richard Sandomir called 60 Minutes out on the silliness and he was on the money. You can't blame Woods and his people for wanting to control the show, but you can blame 60 Minutes for taking whatever it was he would give them.
He gave them very little that he hadn't given before“which isn't much because he likes to keep to himself, and fair enough there. So why did CBS agree to do the show? Ratings, of course. They did a double segment on Woods and their ratings were up 18%.
All of this brings us back to Ames, in a manner of speaking. Or not speaking. He's opened up. He's let us in. That's a good thing. He also showed everybody he can play some golf when he smoked the best field in golf at the Players Championship, winning by six shots.
Photo © Al Messerschmidt/WireImage | Jodi Ames, with son Ryan, battled lung cancer all of last year. |
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Sure, he fumbled somewhat when he talked to the media after he won. He implied he didn't care all that much about the Masters, and to tell the truth, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't. Ames could have simply said he wanted to discuss with his wife Jodi and their sons whether he would play, since they planned a vacation this week in Trinidad. They'd rented a house, the whole bit. Instead he did thumb his nose at Augusta, saying he preferred to go on vacation.
By the next morning he was telling a Toronto radio station he'd play the Masters. By late afternoon he was doing a lengthy conference call with Canadian media that IMG had arranged. He said something like why wouldn't anybody want to play the Masters, that it's the greatest place, yada, yada, yada.
Photo © Al Messerschmidt/WireImage | Ames with his two sons Ryan and Justin. |
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He did want to play the Masters and that's where he is this week. But I've gotten to know Ames pretty well the last few years and I think I'm right when I tell you I believe he does think the Masters is overblown, overhyped and oversold. And I admire his instinctive, shoot from the lip response when he was asked about whether he would play so soon after he won the Players.
By the next morning and in the conference call he was on the politically correct track. He said he'd show up at Augusta; of course he would, etc., etc, now that he'd talked with his family. He said that but he'd also told Canadian Press in February this year that getting back to the Masters after playing the first time last year is ”not important to me at all." He wasn't crazy about the course changes he'd heard about.
Ames is an interesting character all right. He said a couple of years ago that he wasn't all that interested in playing the 2005 Presidents Cup if he qualified, because he wasn't fond of team golf. He doesn't, and he was speaking his mind. That's a good thing. Players become real when they're honest. Ames didn't make the team, anyway. But he could well make the 2007 Presidents Cup that will be played at the Royal Montreal Golf Club.
Ames would get whipped and whupped if he didn't play. But why should golfers conform to our expectations? Maybe he'd be a burden to the team if he wasn't all that keen about playing in the Presidents Cup.
But if he qualifies or is named to the team, he'll play. For sure. He's said so. He said before the 2005 Presidents Cup that he'd play if he made the team. PC: Presidents Cup. PC: Politically correct. That's not Ames, not really.
Photo © Jeff Gross/Getty Images | Ames is pasionate about kids playing golf and has given over a quarter of a million dollars for Junior Golf. |
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Meanwhile, anybody in Canada at least who has followed Ames knows the guy is passionate about things that do matter to him. He started a foundation with $300,000 of his own money. He gave his name to the Stephen Ames Cup that the Canadian Junior Golf Association held last year just outside Toronto, and came up with the $25,000 to bring eight kids up from Trinidad and Tobago.
Ames also had shown up in the summer of 2004 at a tournament that his fellow Canadian tour pro Richard Zokol held for the Canadian Junior Golf Association in Toronto. He said at dinner, in front of everybody, ”Whatever you want me to do for junior golf in Canada, I'll be there. You can count on me."
Ames means what he says. He missed the cut in the 2004 Bell Canadian Open at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario. Asked about it, he said, ”Ah, yes, wonderful Glen Abbey. It's not so much the design that I don't like, but the condition is never the way it should be."
But he also said he figured the tournament at the Shaughnessy course in Vancouver last September would be ”awesome," and ditto for this year's Canadian Open at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Hamilton, Ontario. Hey, he's just being honest. He's no fan of Glen Abbey. So be it. So he tells everybody. Good for him.
You think John Daly grips it and rips it? Ames is the real gripper and ripper, when it comes to talking the talk anyway. He'd finished third in the 1998 Nissan Open and the next week he was sitting in the locker room at Doral when an equipment representative walked by him. The guy said hi to Ames, how are you, what's doing, nice finish, and more. Ames wasn't all that warm to the fellow.
"That guy didn't have a second for me until last week," Ames sneered after the brief encounter. "He wouldn't say a word to me."
Photo © Stan Badz/WireImage | Tiger Woods gave Ames a big waxing at the Match Play Championship beating 9 & 8. |
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Yeah, you get the edgy stuff from Ames. But at the Honda last month he did indicate Augusta was at least there, at the edge of his mind. ”Two top-10s might get me in," he said. Instead he won the biggest tournament outside the majors.
By the way, Ames said at the Honda that Woods, who had won at Doral, played unbelievably against him at the Match Play Championship. "He was seven-under par for 10 holes," he said of the way Woods played to beat him 9&8. ”I said that he's amazing, and it's true. He played amazing golf."
Ames also defended his earlier comments that Woods wasn't the most accurate driver of the ball, which made it even more amazing that he keeps winning. ”Just like at Doral. He doesn't need to hit fairways, and he won."
Ames was killed in the media after Woods beat him 9&8. He wasn't killed after he said he might not play the Masters, but he did raise eyebrows. A quick search of articles about Ames showed the following words to describe him: ”Aloof, prickly, eccentric, blunt."
Exactly. And that's as he should be, because Stephen Ames is not PC. He's the Players Champion, but he's not PC. Thankfully.
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