Thursday, July 24, 2008 - The son of former New York Mayor Giuliani is suing his Duke University golf coach for kicking him out of the men’s golf team. Andrew Giuliani, 22, claims that he had hopes for playing professional golf in the future, hopes which apparently were about to be broken when he was dismissed from the team in February in an effort by the coach, O.D. Vincent III, to whittle down the team’s number from 13 to half its original size.
Allegations of misconduct by Giuliani, from unsportsmanlike behavior to fast driving in golf course grounds, were dismissed by his camp as fabrications to help the coach shrink the size of the men’s golf team as rapidly as possible. His lawyers submitted a 198-page lawsuit seeking unspecified compensatory damages and the right to use the Duke Golf center while he is in school and after he graduates, as well as a jury trial.
Giuliani claimed that the coach employed a “Lord of the Flies’ scheme, where each team member was required to submit a letter stating their support for Giuliani, and that the coach allegedly told team members who supported Giuliani to wait until they could talk to him, while at the same time prevented Giuliani from talking to his former teammates. Presently, five team players already expressed their desire to keep Giuliani off the team in letters sent through email.
A spokesperson for the former New York mayor said that the elder Giuliani had no comment, stating that the issue was a private matter.