Former PGA president Ted Bishop should be working on getting his 45 hole Legends Golf Club ready for next season. If all went as planned at last fall’s Ryder Cup he would have been riding a high for a very long time. But the ass whipping taken by the Americans at the hands of those pesky Europeans screwed up Ted’s plans.
Then came the Tweet that brought down the President.
After spending the day with Nick Faldo at the Greenbrier Bishop defended Faldo after Ian Poulter tried to take down the six time major champion on Twitter. Bishop let loose with his infamous “lil girl” reference and the rest is history…bad history. 
The PGA of America went all nuclear on Bishop and very quickly he was gone and stripped of every privilege not just any past president would have but any privilege a card carrying PGA member would have.
It was overkill for sure and it still stings Bishop. It really stings.
Jeff Ritter of Golf.com sat down with Bishop and it’s easy to see the wound hasn’t healed.
That night, you also wrote on your Facebook page, “Really? Sounds like a little school girl squealing during recess. C’MON MAN!” Did you have any beef with Poulter prior to this?
Our paths had crossed. I congratulated him as we were standing on the 18th green watching the final match unfold at the Ryder Cup [at Gleneagles]. I had no animosity. But based on Poulter’s social media history, I felt like [my tweet and Facebook post] were in line with some of the barbs he would send out.
Bishop may have worn out his welcome with many in the PGA. He was the most visible president in recent history and liked to be in front of any cameras.
Do you think people at the PGA wanted you out and saw this as an opportunity?
Yeah, I do. As the events unfolded, I might have been naïve about some of what was going on around me. The PGA of America gave me a lot of flexibility and freedom to say whatever I wanted. I knew there were times when I got close to the line, but I felt I never crossed it. This is just my nature. That’s who I am and what I do.
Had you been drinking before sending the tweet? 
No, absolutely not.
You were a high-profile PGA president. Is it possible that you enjoyed the spotlight too much?
That’s another area where, internally, some of my detractors would have used that against me. They would have said that I enjoyed the limelight, that I relished that environment. My presidency started out [in 2012] with the anchoring controversy. I became the spokesperson [Bishop was against the USGA’s ban on anchored putters]. And as a result, I think that set the stage for a lot of things that unfolded in the next two years.
Bishop says he got a raw deal and it certainly looks like he did.
You’ve had time to reflect on your firing. Do you feel your punishment fit the crime?
No, I don’t. I think I got a raw deal. Take Patrick Reed as an example [Reed made a gay slur in November at an event in China]. Patrick’s remarks were far more inflammatory than my remarks. My youngest daughter Googled “Patrick Reed” and “insensitive gay remarks,” and she said there were 145,000 results. She Googled “Ted Bishop’s Twitter remarks” and 10,600,000 popped up. When I talk to people with the PGA Tour about how they would handle players who had tweeted far worse things than I did, this was really an extreme reaction.
Bishop may have deserved some sanctions from the PGA but it was as if they wanted to totally wipe him from the PGA history books and that’s unwarranted.
He’s right…he got a raw deal and he’ll have way too many winters to stew about it.
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