Analyst speaks on Tiger 'cheat' quip
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Brandel Chamblee has spoken.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn made headlines in March when they announced they were a couple. See how love bloomed.
The catalyst for one of the latest rip-roarin' golf feud appeared on Golf Channel on Wednesday to address his comments in a column posted two weeks ago on Sports Illustrated's golf web site, golf.com, that insinuated Tiger Woods had cheated in incidents earlier this year.
But he stepped back on the show Golf Central, admitting he "went too far."
"In offering my assessment of Tiger's year, and specifically looking at the incidents in Abu Dhabi, Augusta, Ponte Vedra and Chicago, I said Tiger Woods was 'cavalier' about the rules. And I should have stopped right there," Chamblee said.
"In comparing those incidents to my cheating episode in the fourth grade, I went too far. Cheating involves intent. Now I know what my intent was on that fourth grade math test, but there was no way I could know with 100 percent certainty what Tiger Woods' intent was in any of those situations. That was my mistake."
Brandel Chamblee. Not able to read Tiger's thoughts. Got it. He also managed to sneak in one gloriously haughty assessment of himself:
"My job as an analyst at Golf Channel requires me to analyze the golf and offer my opinions. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it."
His comments came two days after Woods and his agent, Mark Steinberg at Excel Sports, put pressure on Golf Channel to do something.
''All I am going to say is that I know I am going forward,'' Woods said Monday before an exhibition in China. ''But then, I don't know what the Golf Channel is going to do or not. ... So the ball really is in the court of the Golf Channel and what they are prepared to do.''
Steinberg previously said that he was considering legal action. He did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press on Chamblee's comments Wednesday night.
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Chamblee had previously apologized via Twitter but these were his first on-air comments.
In his column, Chamblee wrote of being caught cheating in the fourth grade, and how the teacher had crossed a line through his ''100'' and given him an ''F.'' He then wrote, ''I remember when we only talked about Tiger's golf. I missed those days. He won five times and contended in majors and won the Vardon Trophy and ... how shall we say this ... was a little cavalier with the rules.'' He then gave Woods a ''100'' with a line through it, followed by the ''F.''
He said an editor at golf.com asked him to rewrite the ending.
''I wish I would have listened to him,'' Chamblee said Wednesday.
Chamblee, a former PGA Tour player, was a contributor to SI Golf Plus whose columns appeared on golf.com. He said he would no longer write for the publication.
''Tiger and his camp, they're upset at Golf Channel. They specifically called Golf Channel out,'' Chamblee said. ''And to me, they're barking up the wrong tree. This column appeared on golf.com. Nobody here at Golf Channel knew anything about it. ... But all of this has made me realize that there is a conflict and confusion when you work for one company and write for another company.''
Also when you insinuate people are cheaters.
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Chamblee said he would no longer write for any of the Golf magazine properties next year, only for websites affiliated with NBC and Golf Channel.
''That way, if Tiger and his camp have an issue with something I write, they will at least be yelling at the right people,'' he said.
True. There's that.
Chamblee said it was a 45-minute drive to take his son to school that made him realize he went over the top. He said his son told that if he had been more diplomatic in his observations, that people would be talking more about the issue than his opinion.
''It wasn't until after he said that that I offered my apology on Twitter,'' Chamblee said. ''Mayb
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