I went over to The Golf Channel’s Big Break page and just watched Lori Atsedes’ exit interview. Stina Sternberg asked her if she had one piece of advice to give Christina. Lori responded:
That golf isn’t personal. It’s a business. And when I’m on the golf course, I’m in my office. When I’m in my office, I’m very particular about where things should go and how they should go there. And when you’re off the golf course, we’re back to let’s have a glass of wine and have dinner and be friends and there’s a fine balance there. And the younger players have a hard time not taking things personally when it comes to business.
I thought the following viewer hit the nail on the head in response to Lori:
“Good riddance Lori, so sad to see you go – not !! Christina may have have been imature in her actions but yours were calculated – organizing the other ladies and making sure that she was the outcast. With putting like yours you certainly didn’t deserve to get as far as you did. Trevor from Toronto.”
Here’s another:
“I’m sorry but after seeing how Lori acted not only towards Christina but to Sophy when she was getting ready for her chip was so ridiculous. I am glad she fell flat on her face worse than any other competitor has before. All those 3 putts in a row? I loved it because it was payback for how she treated the others.”
Perhaps Lori should go into politics or maybe she has lost touch with reality. What an amazing ability to completely deflect any blame and distort reality.
Looks like one of Lori’s friends has been busy on Wikipedia: “In one episode of The Big Break, there was a ruling issue where Kim and Lori questioned whether another contestent, Christina, had stepped on a divot, therefore improving her lie. The Golf Channel rules officials decided that she had in fact breached a rule and took her points away. This cause (sic) outrage and unwarranted personal attacks on Lori on The Golf Channel discussion boards.”
I’m afraid it was more than just that (of course, how can Christina improve her lie when she was allowed to place the ball in the first place?). Lori had been a bitch since the beginning of the show. After Christina’s choke comment, Lori was the instigator in getting the other girls to treat Christina as an outcast. Pretty soon, almost all the other competitors were trying to find little nit picky etiquette “violations” against Christina as a result of Lori’s instigation. Sophie showed a complete lack of class by failing to replace the pin on any of the holes in the elimination challenge against Christina. Lori also tried to call a rules violation against Sophie for allegedly testing her putting line. Basically when there was money on the line, Lori played dirty. Lori ended up bringing the outrage and warranted personal attacks upon herself.
Even The Big Break’s Producer, Brandon Havens, had this to say about Lori: “In the end, Lori was right. Christina ended up beating herself, but it wasn’t because of her attitude. Christina had been so emotionally beat down by all the gamesmanship directed her way over the course of the three days prior that I’m really not sure if anyone on this planet could have stayed focused through it all. So, yes, Lori was right…and she did everything possible to make sure that she was.”
From Lori’s Big Break blog: Probably the toughest thing for me through this whole experience has been the negative fan response. I was absolutely shocked! Every show has to have the good guy and the bad guy. Many times I was the bad guy. I know my mouth can get me in trouble. I say things without putting much thought into them, but never expected the backlash. I never considered people would make judgements on such little evidence.
Wow! Are we distorting reality again here, Lori? “On such little evidence?” Are you kidding me? Sure, I understand we only see a small snippet of all that went on but every show your mouth was writing checks that your ass couldn’t cash. Hopefully, you looked into the mirror of the television and were able to point the finger at yourself. Accept some of the blame if you can’t take it all. You bullied Christina right off the show. You didn’t beat her with your clubs. You beat her by alienating her from everyone else. Basically, you treated her like shit. Are you really surprised that she doesn’t want to shake your hand after the match?