I went to Lago Vista golf course last Saturday morning with my friends to play golf. At the first hole, while we were playing, Jeff the assistant manager drove his cart toward us and started screaming at us. He was furious and was not wearing a mask. We did not have any idea what we was mad about. My first response to him was, "Calm down, man. Calm down." He kept yelling.
We finally understood that he was angry because we had driven our cart across a fallen rope that was marking a protected area of the green. I had never heard that we were not allowed to cross the rope with our cart. There were no signs to indicate that. If Jeff had told any of us that we were supposed to stay off the green, we don't remember it. (The rope was lying on the ground when we saw it.) Maybe it was a miscommunication, and maybe he did say something to one of us when one of my friends checked in that he did not understand. But there is NO reason for the assistant manager to rush towards us screaming. He even threatened to call the police!! A simple request would have worked perfectly well, with an explanation of the situation. Instead, it escalated into a shouting match. We are middle-aged Korean men. We felt so offended by this unprofessional behavior, and said to Jeff, "You are yelling at us because we are Asian. Are you being racial?" And Jeff said, "Yes, I'm being racial."
Finally, Jeff drove away and we continued to play. Jeff assigned a marshall to watch us for the next five or six holes, as a threat. Of course, we did nothing wrong so the marshall had nothing to say. My friends discussed this experience, and we are sure that if white golfers had done the same thing, the assistant manager would have politely approached them.
After our game we went to the office and requested an apology from Jeff. He refused and made sarcastic faces at us, saying, "If you don't leave we'll call the police." I called the police and waited until Officer Quick arrived. Officer Quick listened to Jeff's side of the story and our side of the story. He was very understanding and sympathetic. "However," Officer Quick said, "There's no law against being a jerk."
Now Jeff has told us that we cannot return to Lago Vista golf course, even though we've been playing there every two weeks for more than years. It is simply unacceptable that a racist can be so abusive and discriminatory toward me and my friends and the Asian community. I hope the Asian community and allies boycott this golf course until they do something about Jeff.
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