Comment of the Week

"I concur with Geoff, there was not much they could do at that point and it was over so quickly very few people other than the media even knew it happened. The work of our gallery marshalls and the Guilford Sheriffs Deputy's handled it quite fast."

Jim Rumley

(He is commenting on a post from May 24, 2006. I have reprinted it with a copy of the comments made by 2006 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro General Chairman Geoff Cass.)

1994 Kmart Greater Greensboro Open Protest

"Twenty-four hours before the tournament, the organizers faced something of a dilemma. Kmart had made no concessions, and the workers had made their threat on the assumption that it would have some effect—they had no plan for actually disrupting the tournament. So they planned fast.

The day of the Greater Greensboro Open, police surrounded the union hall as if filled with workers, but tournament security didn’t notice the 100 or so workers and organizers who entered course as audience members.

When the lead golfer approached the 10th hole, 100 workers filed out and sat down on the green. With people in the audience shouting "club ‘em like baby seals," they disrupted play for over an hour as police carried them away one by one. Kmart still refused to negotiate."This excerpt came from the following link. "

To read the entire article go to:http://www.wesleyan.edu/hermes/prev/may99/9A.htm

Geoff Cass wrote the following:

"That's quite a bit of revisionist history in the article. I wonder if it was originally in the Daily Worker or something of the like. Anyway, being in charge of Gallery Control that year (along with Richard Fleming and Jim Rumley), we were aware of potential "protests" by the union "activists".

Within ten minutes of the radio call, we were peacefully loading protesters into waiting sheriff's vans to be arrested (to which I think we did not press any charges later). Anyway, there was no "hourlong" disruption, and the protesters never reached the green that I saw.

They were marching down the 10th fairway arm-in-arm until we herded them off. Too bad they chose to protest an event which benefitted the community they lived in. Thanks for letting me have the input.

Geoff Cass1994 KGGO Gallery Control Chairman "

(Geoff Cass is the 2006 General Chairman for the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro.)