Scene on the green: Drunken antics reported at Piedmont Driving Club
The Piedmont Driving Club, known for elegant events such as this past Atlanta Ballet Ball, apparently experienced some recent unpleasantness.
NOTE: Commenting on this blog has been turned off; at 244 comments it had become a bit unwieldy. Click here for a new PDC blog with open commenting; please try to be civil.
The Piedmont Driving Club, usually the scene of air-kissing luncheons and elegant charity galas, is dealing with allegations of unsavory drunken antics more in keeping with the comedy “Caddyshack.”
A letter from a club member sent to the club’s president and general manager and first obtained and posted by the Deadspin web site, complains in detail about uncharacteristically rowdy behavior at a recent golfing event.
“One member decided to play the 14th hole completely naked,” the letter said. “I have not researched it, but I suspect this is a crime in Georgia.”
It goes downhill from there, with members reportedly taking al fresco bathroom breaks on the greens, one member exhibiting his “ability to pick up a golf ball with his naked butt cheeks” and a member passing out in the men’s grill. The Animal House antics reportedly disturbed a rehearsal dinner that was taking place in the club’s main dining room at the time.
“When someone from the rehearsal dinner came into the men’s grill to ask that the drunken members quiet down, the response from one of the drunken golfers was (physically impossible expletive),” the letter said.
In a statement, the Piedmont Driving Club acknowledged that something happened but didn’t address the allegations in detail.
“We have taken disciplinary action based on what we currently know to be true,” the statement read. “We take this matter very seriously and are looking into it further. When all of the facts are gathered and verified, we will consider further action.”
The letter does not name the miscreants, although a tipster sent us the identities of three very prominent Atlantans who supposedly took place in the shenanigans. We’re told they have been suspended and fined.
Since we first posted the story we’ve heard from a number of people identifying themselves as members. They were about evenly split on whether this was all fatuous nonsense or a matter that deserved more scrutiny. None of them wanted to be identified.
“I’d like it to go away,” one anonymous member told us. “It tarnishes our name.”
On the other hand the letter writer, a prominent local attorney, requested that the rowdy antics “be well publicized throughout the Club. Among other things, let the wives and children of these drunkards be confronted with, and ashamed by, the grotesque conduct of their husbands and fathers.”
- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com
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© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
244 comments Add your comment
Get A Rope
June 1st, 2012
1:37 pm
I have not researched it, but I suspect the following may be a crime in Georgia:
* To write such a libellous, scandalous letter based 100% on what the author admitted to be hearsay….see “I have heard” First Line of letter.
* To pretend to write a letter “in private” but writing said letter in such a manner, and actually encouraging it to be forwarded to others, as to ensure it going Viral. It is well documented that he sent this letter directly to many, many others.
* To cause far more damage to the Club’s reputation than the “supposed” actions of the members ever could have.
As an attorney, he knew better than to write such a letter, based on hearsay, and before any facts were known. It is slanderous and irresponsible at best.
The members should file a law suit against the letter writer, for general slander and libel (on the club itself).
Country Clubs can handle issues like these internally. Unfortunately, he “took it to the press” immediately after “hearing” about the supposed actions, and didn’t give the Club a choice.
Too late now. Thanks Weitnauer, for ruining the reputation of a great club. All because you had to be the hero. Reality is your a smug, self-important tattle tale.
I hope the same group of guys you reference in your letter are around to tar and feather you and your big head if you ever have the cajones to step foot on club property again.
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
1:37 pm
It’s quite telling how many people here want to tarnish all members at PDC over a few “jackasses” inappropriate and disgusting behavior at the Member/Guest Tournament. The PDC Board and Officers will handle the punishment and suspensions/expulsions. As far as some people here trying to post the names of the offenders; that’s not your job or any of your business. I’m sure the names will become public record and many of us will recognize those names. I for one am sorry for their wives and children. Being a member of a club like PDC, Cherokee, Capital City or AAC doesnt make you, me or anyone else “better” than anyone. It is a place where people enjoy themselves, conduct business, engage in golf, tennis, gym, swimming etc. Lots of classless comments here.
One Under through 9
June 1st, 2012
1:41 pm
What is it with these guys that they liked to show their johnson to other men…and then use it to hit it on another dudes face? Sounds rather strange to me.
One Under through 9
June 1st, 2012
1:44 pm
Yeah Club Rats…we are classless. Have you even had your face slapped with a memeber’s junk? You sound like you may like a San Francisco bath house.
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
1:46 pm
This is a better read than a Wilbur Warner petition for divorce by Buckhead Betty!
Mark
June 1st, 2012
1:46 pm
Club rats Who is posting the names of offenders? No one is doing that. You sound defensive, it’s your choice to read this stuff or not.
The same public reaction is likely with this behavior if it was 20 middle class friends on a golf outing, or a bunch of country club men. You think people are only commenting because it’s Pdc?
Benito
June 1st, 2012
1:47 pm
@One Under through 9
Now we know they have Alabama fans in the club. (referencing the same thing from the night of the National Championship Game in New Orleans).
Benito
June 1st, 2012
1:48 pm
@ Mark
Read the Note- at the end of the article. People did post names and the author/AJC employee deleted those comments.
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
1:48 pm
PAGING MR. WEITNAUER…MR. WEITNAUER…your Eggs Benedict Arnold are ready in the Park Room!
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
1:49 pm
@club rats – conducting business at the PDC is strictly prohibited. Getting slapped up side the head with a penis is permitted.
Ted Kennedy
June 1st, 2012
1:51 pm
These guys need one of Billy Payne’s lectures like he gave Tigro Woods. And Billy should know. His whole family is upright and righteous.
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
1:51 pm
@rockwell…YOU’RE A ROCKSTAR!
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
1:53 pm
Mark,
The author of this piece has a note up saying that she has removed the comments by people who posted the names. I”ve heard these names as well, they should not be posted by anyone on this comment section in my opinion. Yes, I do beleive this is being blown out of proportion because it was at PDC and not at Bobby Jones or any other public course.
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
1:54 pm
@rockwell
But only if you are circumcised. It’s frowned upon to slap one’s friend with a foreskin.
Rhett Butler
June 1st, 2012
1:56 pm
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
1:57 pm
@ Julius – I also believe an uncircumcised penis is prohibited by the by-laws as well.
Bill the Tool
June 1st, 2012
1:58 pm
I’ll not join any club that would have me as a member!
Benito
June 1st, 2012
2:00 pm
@ Get a Rope
Get over yourself. If you don’t want to get called out for being someone who acts inappropriately, don’t act inappropriately. The writer wrote a letter privately and someone else let the cat out of the bag. The tattle tale (good to know we’re back in the 3rd grade) is not the guilty party. He urged the board to handle it without naming the parties guilty.
dan
June 1st, 2012
2:00 pm
Rich boys will be boys!
dan
June 1st, 2012
2:00 pm
Enter your comments here
max
June 1st, 2012
2:01 pm
I want to be good!
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
2:04 pm
@rockwell
Good point, however, I believe the Club By-Law to which you refer (commonly known as the “Pecker-Check Rule”) was amended when PDC admitted women. It was one of those times where what’s good for the goose was NOT as good for the gander.
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
2:12 pm
Rockwell,
Business functions are held at the club almost every day. You have no clue what you are talking about.
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
2:18 pm
@club rat you are wrong. No business can be conducted at the club and if they over hear they will put a small white engraved card on your table to gently remind you. Ralph used to let you get away with it though. So club rat – obviously you are not among the selected few.
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
2:24 pm
Rockwell,
Again, you have no clue. Coca Cola had a function at Capital City two weeks ago. Banking Execs (won’t mention the bank) had a luncheon at PDC just last week…. I hate being so wrong.
Kingfish
June 1st, 2012
2:28 pm
I find it very curious that the liberal AJC does not allow readers to comment on editorials or news articles yet they selectively open up the comment line for a story that no one really cares about or affects any of us. I suspect they open up the comment lines because it is a salacious story about a conservative country club that 99% of the readers will never get to see the inside of.
Agree with Get A Rope
June 1st, 2012
2:32 pm
Whatever Benito. Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about. I’ve seen over a dozen email chain forwards which came directly from the letter writer himself.
You’re an idiot to think he meant that letter only for the President. If that was the case he would have hand delivered it.
aliveinatlanta
June 1st, 2012
2:37 pm
As a nanny for many years, I can certainly attest to the absurd and what should be shameful behavior, of many clients. Country club parents getting lit and coming home after a party. Mom is trying to write my check at kitchen counter. I ask about dad. She states “he wasn’t feeling so well, think he getting the flu.” I can’t help but notice dad is actually stumbling from one end of the back deck to the other in the dark, while she’s trying to distract me from seeing it with rushing to get me gone. Hilarious!
I sit at hotels for many a late night and 2 or 3 sets of parents show up to hotel room to pay me after a night of partying. I was literally sitting in the dark, with kids asleep on the bed in room, while parents, slurred speech and all, try to figure what they owe me for the evening. They go back and forth, coming up with figures and then backtracking after they figure they haven’t added correctly. Quite comical. I sit there for close to 30 minutes while all this goes on and can’t believe what I’m witnessing.
I work for families whose kids go to preschool and list their moms favorite thing to do is DRINK WINE on their family profile project. I’ve had numerous bounced checks over the years from these country club parents. Can’t pay the sitter what she’s worth, for the care of the children that are supposedly “their life”, but never, ever argue with country club membership fees, trips, gassing up the Escalade, entertaining non-stop, etc. I had a friend who nannied in an exclusive home through our nanny agency. She was told one particular week she would be paid the following week, in other words, could she wait just one more week for her check. She agreed, even though she really needed it. She comes into kitchen the next day and noticed a check sitting out on the kitchen counter, thinking it could have been hers and maybe they were going to pay her sooner. It was a 1000.00 check made out to their Russian personal trainer. How backasswards is that? Just goes to show the reason I’m not much of a drinker first of all. I just sit and observe others making complete idiots out of themselves even after just a couple of beers. People just can’t seem to feel even a slight bit social unless their soused. I’ve watched these folks with so much expendable income do everything they can to keep friends and family believing that are living completely carefree and can pick up and go anytime they want, with no worry. While I’m spending so much time in their home/homes, I see it for how it really is, bounced checks, 800 credit card companies calling at least once an hour, people who have performed services in their homes, calling to get paid, it goes on and on, all while mom looks great, kids look great, everyones shuffled around in luxury, tvs going all day, doors wide open with air running out, dogs yearning for attention and to be walked, etc. A cycle that never seems to have an end. You just wonder how many of their socializing friends and family would keep coming around should the money and entertainment dry up. How very sad!
Thinker
June 1st, 2012
2:46 pm
Amazing how many people who say this is an unimportant story and no one is interested in it have commented. Why did you read it? Why did you comment?
Yes the story is titillating. It’s gross. It’s absurd. It’s rude. It was perhaps misjudged. It is more fun then the stock market. It’s worth a laugh, shock, abhorence, repugnance. It’s like a story out of the Tatler. Jonathan Swift would have found it amusing. Lady Astor would have been bemused. Churchill may have considered the whole story simply ‘reMEMBERences.
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
2:47 pm
@Club rats obviously your 4 digit membership number is different from everyone else. Just because you have been to the PDC for a function a member does not make you or you would know this rule pertains to members. No one sitting in the park room for lunch has papers on the table – for a reason. Allowing members to conduct business opens the membership open to some interesting exclusion of business issues tied to liquor license issues etc.
jwads
June 1st, 2012
2:59 pm
Not a private club member here but can’t help but notice the huge amo9unt of wealth envy here. Newsflash people….this is a private club. Not sure how this made it to the press but if I was on the membership committee the guy who leaked it would be in as much trouble as the people who did all this. I’m sure this will be handled internally, and since it is a private club they have sole discretion to handle as THEY see fit. Now if there are some offended employees etc. etc. that want to bring a lawsuit because of something that happened to them in the workplace then that is a different story. Until I see this happen though I am going to remember that this is a PRIVATE institution that can govern themselves without the help of jealous non members. Hey…..you don’t have to join and be patrons of PDC if you don’t want to.
mark
June 1st, 2012
3:05 pm
Jwads- maybe some wealth envy, maybe some folks wish they were of the chose few who’s parents or grandparents became PDC members, thus they are selected.
Is that so unusual? No.
I wish I had more money all the time, but I have cousins who are trust funds, and guess what? They are lazy, fu– ups at 50 plus years old. My side of family is all successful, but not ridulously wealthy.
So personally, I’m fine NOT being a trust baby, most of the time. But there’s always a few days when work sucks or I’m in an airport on a friday night that I wish i didn’t have to work, so I’m guilty too.
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
3:05 pm
Club Rats, rockwell is correct. Just because a buisness arranges a SOCIAL event does not mean that they are conducting business. Papers, PowerPoints, etc are verbotin at PDC. At CCC, they allow it in a private room. And in the locker rooms, most anything goes…even giving your buddy a tap with your gentitals.
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
3:05 pm
@At Rockwell,
I did not say you could have papers on your table in an dining area although I have seen it and don’t care. You said business is not done at the club when in fact it is. Catering, events, private rooms, and business functions are routinely done at the club. I also never stated whether I was or was not a member and frankly it’s not even relevant. You actually sound like you’re one of the “members” still using mom and dads club # A001?
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
3:07 pm
@aliveinatlanta
With all that trashy behavior going on among the rich and foolish, surely there’s some hot illicit sex going on. C’mon girl…every guy’s dream is to nail the hot French nanny! Spill it!
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
3:08 pm
Julius ,
I don”t disagree. Business is done at the club. Period. It is done on the golf course, by the pool, in the mens grill, its done everywhere. If you are a member, you know this.
#1 Foxy Lady
June 1st, 2012
3:14 pm
sanctimonious, righteous, self-important, lawyer-bitch snitches get stitches.
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
3:18 pm
no prob @ club rats. It’s 4 digits. No letters or spaces. I have to agree with about 90% of what is written here though. These men are supposed to be leaders and incidents like this reflect poorly on our community as a whole whether they are PDC members or not.
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
3:26 pm
NEWS FLASH!
The Driving Club BOD has issued their punishment. The offenders will be required to attend workshops led by the right Reverend Kit. Topics include:
1. “How To Drag Your Club Through the Mud”
2. “Confidentiality…It’s Just Not for Lawyers Anymore”
3. “Hear-Say, Smear-Say, I’m Just Sayin’”
4. “Why Tea-Baggin’ the Caddie Girl is Frowned Upon”
5. “The Lift and Clean Rule is for Golf Balls Only”
Following each of Rev. Kit’s sermonettes, the offenders will be required to march through Peidmont Park with their putters chanting and clutching their packages Marine-style, “This is putter…this is my putz! This is for golfing,…this is for sluts.”
Benito
June 1st, 2012
3:27 pm
You must be an idiot to agree with a buffoon like Get a Rope. Sue him, he said something that I don’t like. What a joke. So, the one who wrote a letter is the criminal? You’re a loser that can’t stand the truth now that the world knows.
TricyRick
June 1st, 2012
3:30 pm
@juiliusrobinson, rediculous to blame anything on the scheduling manager and your analogy is obscene. No one to blame here but the members. Period.
Can't stop laughing
June 1st, 2012
3:32 pm
This comment thread is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. Julius Robinson, Esq, you make me laugh!!!
Club Rats
June 1st, 2012
3:33 pm
@Rockwell,
I agree. My biggest problem with some of the comments are; the people who were so willingly giddy to post names without knowing for a fact these individuals actually were involved (I’ve heard the names and I am aquainted with two of them) and the whole wealth envy crowd. As I stated before, I’m more concerned about their families. PDC will go on and be fine as will the others.
Agree with Get A Rope
June 1st, 2012
3:39 pm
Benito My Friend,
Again, the problem isn’t the letter itself. Absolutely there is nothing wrong with calling out bad behavior. The problem is that he meant for it to go Viral. There is proof he sent the letter out to many people directly himself, with encouragement for it be forwarded again and again.
Had he meant it for the President’s eyes only, it would have been HAND DELIVERED.
rockwell
June 1st, 2012
3:41 pm
@club rats. I agree the names should not be tossed around. But the wealth envy is probably warranted as we all know a large number of these members have done nothing to earn any wealth or respect as displayed by the penis slapping and butt check games.
Know your place, hayseeds.
June 1st, 2012
3:45 pm
I once met a Maidstone member whose landscaper belonged to PDC.
Julius Robinson, Esq.
June 1st, 2012
3:46 pm
@Can’t stop laughing
Glad you are enjoying. This whole episdode is just too easy to poke. Can you imagine these poor bast—s having to explain to their big bosses why they can’t have lunch at the Club, why little wifey can’t play tennis and the kids are booted off the swim team. Oh man…a living hell!
And the legacy…yeah remember the story about the guys who slapped their Johnson’s on their passed out freind’s face…yeah, I’m that guy.
The real Julius Robinson is laughing his ass off in heaven!
Sugar Daddy
June 1st, 2012
3:47 pm
We need the Pink Pony to bring some adult entertainers over here to caddy and dance nekkid for us! You folks have a sense of humor and realize boys will be boys!
Wally
June 1st, 2012
3:57 pm
“What an ugly hat! But it looks good on you!”
Big Al
June 1st, 2012
3:59 pm
“Daddy, why can’t we go to the Driving Club?”
“Well son, Mushroom Stamping is frowned upon in that establishment”