Kelly Tilghman Slip of the Tongue

How come no one emailed me about this?!

Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman has apologized after saying during Friday's telecast of the PGA Tour's opening event that today's young players should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley."

According to New York Newsday, a spokesman for the network said Tilghman apologized on Sunday's telecast and has reached out to Woods' representatives to express her regrets for the comments.

That's a crazy slip of the tongue. Of course, I didn't hear the actual audio of what she said, so I'm not prepared to make any kind of judgment.

Time for a little blind speculation. Tiger Woods does not forget grudges. Ask Stephen Ames or Rory Sabbatini. If you upset him as a member of the media, you can pretty much expect stone wall from him for quite a while. Just how he is.

Now, the major question is how much offense Woods took to what Tilghman said. Again, I didn't see it, so I don't know the context or just how offensive and/or latently racist it was. But, if it upset Tiger enough, then TGC may have a serious problem on their hands in having a superstar that is not particularly interested in talking to their network. If that is the case, this could be a lights out scenario for Kelly.

It's unfortunate, too, because I feel she has really improved over the past 12-18 months in her role as lead anchor. There was rampant speculation toward the end of last season that she would not return to the anchor chair. This may cement her removal from that position. Blind speculation, certainly, but just outlining the possibilities here.

I supported Dottie Pepper's right to call the American Solheim Cuppers "choking freaking dogs" on a live mic. That was not latently racist, though, nor did it potentially anger the world's best player. Opinion is a part of sports. How you present it is critical, though.


Links:
Here's a link from The Sports Hernia Blog that goes Onion-esque on the news. No real insight, but I laughed at them poking fun at Mike Lupica and Mitch Albom.

Want to talk about this? The Sand Trap has a forum on it. You might be amused by some of the replies, but the general consensus there is that this is nothing to fret.

On the other side of the spectrum, this blogger appears pretty upset about the comment and compares it to Fuzzy Zoeller's collard greens comment from the Masters Champions Dinner in 1998. (I wouldn't go that far with it.)