Piedmont Driving Club incident all the buzz
This circa 1910 photo of the Piedmont Driving Club Ball is from the Atlanta History Center archives. atlantahistorycenter.com
NOTE: I am turning off comments again, having just removed several comments that used people’s names as their screen names. Not cool, people. I cut off commenting before, only to have people ask if some “conspiracy” between PDC leadership and AJC brass got the commenting cut off. No. The conspiracy is between me, myself and I. We’re all tired of babysitting the blog. I get that this is a topic of interest for whatever reason, and as a big fan of the First Amendment I do usually leave commenting open. But it’s not fair for people to see their names showing up with comments they didn’t make (especially gross or offensive ones). Sorry.
The Piedmont Driving Club has hosted numerous events raising funds and awareness for worthy causes over the years. That’s a photo from around 1910 from the Atlanta History Center archives. More recently, the Beauty Becomes You “Elegant Hats” luncheon was held there in April. The Georgia CASA Luncheon and Fashion Show was in March. Events benefiting the Atlanta Ballet, including the annual Ball and Corps de Ballet luncheon, have been held there a number of times.The Atlanta chapter of Jack and Jill of America celebrated its 60th anniversary there about a year ago.
None of those generated the sort buzz that an unfortunate incident involving allegations of lewd antics by overserved members did last week.
On Friday night we cut off commenting on the initial blog post on reports of rowdy behavior during a recent golfing event, when anonymous bloggers kept posting the names of people who supposedly were involved. Over the weekend we heard from a steady stream of people eager to keep discussing the matter.
We’ve also heard from numerous people identifying themselves as members, or the spouses of members, of the Piedmont Driving Club. Those folks seem about evenly split on whether allegations of drunken members irrigating the greens is a bunch of fatuous nonsense, or a serious matter that needs additional scrutiny.
The Club’s only public statement regarding the matter is as follows: “We have taken disciplinary action based on what we currently know to be true. 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.”
We’re told that those responsible have been suspended and fined.
Meanwhile we’re told Club leadership is consulting with a PR firm to address the matter moving forward. For now we’ll end with a comment from a member who wishes to be identified only as “An Avid Golfer.” It was emailed to us this morning:
“Dear Jennifer, I wanted to comment but noticed that you had turned the comments off. I keep a long quotation on my bulletin board from Herbert Warren Wind whom you may have heard of in your profession. He was a prominent golf sports writer. It represents my feelings about golf and I am sure many who love the game. This is only part of the quote. ‘Even for the lucky few among us for whom things always seem to go right, the world is never an easy place. The quality of our lives is frequently disappointing, seldom as pleasant or as significant as we had hoped for when we were young. In the midst of this, golf provides a small world where the standards are civilized, where people are frequently at their best, and where there is humor and spontaneity and, at times, the true strain of poetry which all of us seem to need in our lives. WE MUST BE SURE WE TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT.”
- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com
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© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
82 comments Add your comment
GTPHISH
June 5th, 2012
6:03 pm
@Get Real:
Lighten up, Francis….sorry you get so offended at a little bit of fun I was having with this story.
Wallace
June 5th, 2012
6:06 pm
One under.. Ok, it was Herman Cain..
Carpetbagger
June 5th, 2012
6:06 pm
@ Wallace- nope- Cross Creek and the American Legion/VFW! HARDY HAR HAR!
Wallace
June 5th, 2012
6:08 pm
Havent hd this much fun since lewinski
the truth
June 5th, 2012
6:10 pm
PDC, just a richer class of redneck.
One Under through 9
June 5th, 2012
6:14 pm
PDC Motto: “We used to have a drinking problem. Now we can afford it.”
Atlanta Mom
June 5th, 2012
6:26 pm
Alright, for the great unwashed out here, what is “member-member tournament”?
How is it different from a member tournament?
New Money
June 5th, 2012
6:29 pm
“We live in a nice neighborhood where most of these “members” also live. We could never join a club like CCC or PDC (my wife is Jewish and they hate Jews). I cannot say that I would want to associate with these people in a social setting, we like our friends for who they are and not who their parents were. But it is always interesting to see what these people look like when the surface is peeled away and the core is exposed.
Jake from state farm
June 5th, 2012
6:37 pm
Carpetbagger – sounds like you are in full hate/envy mode. Go to work and you might have some money too.
Beretverde
June 5th, 2012
6:44 pm
As my daddy used to say- “There is a time and a place for everything.” This behavior belongs in Vegas!
Carpetbagger
June 5th, 2012
6:47 pm
Snake Farm- nope not at all. But you do exhibit the classic ATL form. Name calling and pigeon holing when someone is being direct and they don’t like it. Not being a “hata”… just calling it like it is.
baby
June 5th, 2012
7:27 pm
The real question is why a club that has $90k admission/dues, and well over $70 million in assets, is tax exempt.
worked there
June 5th, 2012
7:37 pm
I worked at PDC and I have worked at a number of high-end clubs (both resort and private). And the time I spent at PDC was by far the worst time I experienced in the golf business. The majority (not all) of the membership treated the staff with pure disdain. Some of the members who play every Saturday morning (you know who you are) ask for a certain “type” caddie so they can humiliate them for four hours.
Some of you have asked “why didn’t the staff do more”. I feel sorry for the staff they are reminded daily they are the help and only speak when spoken too. The staff has to walk around on egg shells for fear of their jobs. I was lucky enough to find employment else-ware and I left on my own terms.
P.S. to the staff of PDC you deserve better; the members not so much…
whita
June 5th, 2012
7:57 pm
“fined” not fired
Benito
June 5th, 2012
8:54 pm
@baby The revenue generated or assets controlled has nothing to do with a tax exempt status for a business or other entity. Some of the biggest organizations are tax exempt. Churches, school and all sorts of charities. It has to do with how much they pay in salary and what they do with the leftover money. I wouldn’t worry about their tax status, that’s all legitimate. But, if anyone ever sued for any kind of sexual harassment or discrimination or whatever, that could certainly cause them to take a hit. Probably wouldn’t topple them though.
rockwell
June 5th, 2012
9:19 pm
@Wallace – you have said too much since there is only one african american member at PDC that I know of?! Scandal!
PDC member
June 5th, 2012
9:57 pm
I’m not going to be impressed until somebody takes a dump in the cup on the 18th green in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday. Do that and I will salute you.
Johnny Ringo
June 5th, 2012
9:57 pm
@wallace
Who really cares if the guy is a member anywhere or not?
Leigh
June 5th, 2012
10:43 pm
What a great idea to re-open the comments.
Truth about It
June 6th, 2012
7:33 am
Geiven the genital whacking, tea bagging, etc. the PDC seems like a bunch of jerk weirdos.
DiANNE
June 6th, 2012
8:01 am
So, some young men at a privat club misbehaved. There was a time when friends and family would have privately taken them to task for any rude behavior. offer apologies and restitution but continue to support and protect loved ones. Now, everyone is so ready to condemn, to punish, to admonish. Jeez, give it a rest.
YUUUUP
June 6th, 2012
8:08 am
Homeboy is too friggin old to be whacking sleeping drunk folks with his Wang! I thought only white boys do that gay mess…
WHO CARES!
June 6th, 2012
8:15 am
As a native Atlantan I don’t know one single per who gives a crap…..we don’t care if they play drunk and naked and it televised. Seriously, why do you care? A little mooning never hurt anyone!
joeybiten
June 6th, 2012
8:57 am
this is all g. bushs fault.
Club Rats
June 6th, 2012
9:02 am
@New Money, there are plenty of Jewish members at CCC. You know not of what you speak…………
Golfer 2
June 6th, 2012
9:18 am
Atlanta Mom: two members form a team and play against other two-man teams. Usually use the best score of the two for that hole (sometimes use different formats). A member-guest tournament is also made up of two-man teams, but one player is a member and the other is an invited guest of that member.
Golfer 2
June 6th, 2012
9:19 am
Of course, by some of the comments on here, you might perceive a member-member as being something more sordid.
Typical
June 6th, 2012
9:32 am
In my early 20s, a member’s son (my same age) asked me out for dinner at PDC. As a native Atlantan well aware that PDC was old-money, I looked forward to a classy/elegant evening. But it was my first and last time there, because this is what occurred:
He got ridiculously intoxicated before dinner was even over. He had driven us there so I had to ask the bartender to call me a cab. My date proceeded to curse me out on the front steps for refusing to let him drive me home himself, yelling that I was making a scene and was going to be sorry. The valet pulled up his car even though he was stumbling drunk. The last I ever saw of him, he was driving away in full view of various employees and members who made no attempt to stop him.
I was there
June 6th, 2012
11:01 am
ClubRats is right New Money. There are also jewish members of the PDC. You could easily get in CCC right now. Any human that can fog a mirror and write the check will be accepted to CCC right now which is ruining our club
atlanta mom
June 6th, 2012
1:05 pm
Thanks Golfer 2. I tried not to think about the more sordid options.
Parker
June 6th, 2012
1:05 pm
Suspended and fiNed, not fiRed. No one has been fired over the incident
pdcwife
June 6th, 2012
1:07 pm
get a life. this is all old, boring news. it is a PRIVATE club.