A Stumble On The Fairway Of Life

Jul 24, 2008

By Patrick.

I’d better choose my words carefully here, or Andrew Giuliani, son of New York City mayor Rudolf Giuliani, may sue me for calling him a washout golfer who couldn’t hack it on the Duke University golf team. So I won’t say that.

But Giuliani’s suing Duke University and his coach, Orrin Vincent, in the United States District Court (MDNC) for saying essentially the same thing. As I read the Complaint, Giuliani seems to be alleging that his golf scholarship (though it’s difficult to say whether he actually had one, as he refers to paying $200,000 as “consideration” for coming) at Duke is a contract, requiring the University to provide four years’ tuition, room and board, not terminable at the will of Duke. For things like, say, being a subpar golf player. As a consequence, little Andrew will have to forego the lucrative PGA career that surely awaited him, in favor of, I dunno, law school.

As a public service, I have downloaded the 29 page complaint from the Federal District Court ’s website, so that everyone can know how poorly Andrew Giuliani has been treated by Duke (Go Carolina!), in some of the purplest legal prose I’ve read in a dog’s age.

giuliani-v-duke-university

A few quick thoughts:

We can take this as confirmation that Rudy Giuliani will not be McCain’s VP nominee, and that perhaps McCain told him so when they met on Sunday. The famously volatile mayor surely approved this suit, but would never have done so if he’d been planning to run. Or could this be the doing of Donna Hanover? I recall reading that hizzoner had reconciled with his kids after the pain of the divorce, but that was when the man was campaigning for himself rather than John McCain.

Andrew Giuliani is suing based on promises allegedly made by his former (deceased) coach Rod Myers during recruitment. Are such promises binding on future coaches, or the University, especially when not reduced to writing? Is a scholarship offer not revocable for bad behavior and subpar (12th out of 14 on the team according to ESPN) play?

Also, Duke is notorious (even among top universities) for its aggressive pursuit of the children of the rich and famous, who can help to increase the University’s standing and endowment. The school is well-known for lowering academic entrance standards for such kids, admitting them in preference to kids who are better qualified but poorer or not famous, using intangibles such as “leadership” as justification. Surely the son of a mayor is a proven leader. Was Andrew Giuliani given a golf scholarship, or allowed to walk on, because he’s a great leader rather than a great golfer? Only Rod Myers can say, and he’s not telling.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops.

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Golf

8 Comments

Andrew • Jul 24, 2008 @12:55 pm

I’m not so sure that Rudy approved the suit — he’s allegedly estranged from his kids, including Andrew (I can’t imagine why).

That said, the apple apparently doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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Patrick • Jul 24, 2008 @1:04 pm

You can be sure that Andrew Giuliani isn’t paying the fees for Bob Ekstrand, his attorney. And you can also be sure that Ekstrand (who’s also suing Duke on behalf of a few of the (unarrested, uncharged) lacrosse players), didn’t take this one on a contingent fee.

Perhaps Donna Hanover is paying the freight.

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Grandy • Jul 24, 2008 @2:23 pm

I don’t think scholarships are binding across more than one year; each scholarship is actually re-knewed on a year by year basis (it’s not often that someone goes on scholarship and finds themself off it, short of being kicked off a team, though it does happen). I could have sworn this was right, but I might be mistaken. I’ll see if I can google it.

Secondly, you touch on an interesting issue with the “promise of a former coach” thing. Obviously, such promises aren’t binding. It isn’t often, but I do occasionally see programs lose kids after a regime change, and while it isn’t always the public reason sometimes one is lead to believe a kid was told he was no longer welcome.

The studen athlete gets short shrift here, because if they want to transfer they’re still subject to NCAA rules & regs. For recruits and current kids, they ought to allow free-transfer in the case of a coaching change. But that’s a topic for another time.
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Bruce • Jul 24, 2008 @4:32 pm

You may want to rethink your wording. In a game where the lowest score wins being subpar is actually a good thing. Someone who is consistently below par can make a lot of money.

In fact that entire metaphor completely breaks down now that I look at it where being lower than par is actually an indicator of success.
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Patrick • Jul 24, 2008 @6:03 pm

Maybe in Australia Bruce, but in America subpar means poor among everyone except, well golfers.

I wouldn’t know. I shoot, guns not balls, for sporting recreation.

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Bruce • Jul 24, 2008 @6:19 pm

Subpar is used the same here - but thinking about it I think we’ve got it back-arsed.

But for this article in particular - we are discussing a golfer, so the disconnect between meanings is more pronounced.
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dbt1949 • Jul 24, 2008 @8:21 pm

That’s just par for the course.
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David • Jul 25, 2008 @9:22 am

I can’t decide whether this action is halfbaked or parboiled.
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