The Tiger Woods-Brandel Chamblee Feud Mercifully Comes to an End
Golf Channel Analyst Backs Off Accusatory Comments, Should Have Written 'More Diplomatically'
COMMENTARY | Finally, thankfully and mercifully it seems that the Tiger Woods-Brandel Chamblee feud has come to an end.
Chamblee appeared on the Golf Channel's Golf Central on Wednesday, Oct. 30 to make a public statement -- his first, not counting Twitter -- on his controversial Golf.com story that has drawn so much criticism from the Woods camp.
In the piece, Chamblee, tongue-in-cheekly, gives year-end grades for 14 of the game's best-known players, offering a short take and finishing with their grade.
As is the case with just about everything he's mentioned in, the Tiger Woods portion of the story drew more attention from just about everyone who clicked, including Woods' agent, Excel Sports Management's Mark Steinberg.
Steinberg was furious. Disgusted. Shocked.
Chamblee opened his snippet on Tiger with a tale of a past transgression of his own. Chamblee cheated in fourth grade. He got caught and was given an F on a test. Had this piece of his personal history not been included, perhaps the backlash would not have been so negative.
The problem was that Chamblee related his intention to cheat on a test to Woods' run-ins with the rules throughout the 2013 season. The insinuation between the lines of the story couldn't have been more obvious. Chamblee was calling Woods a cheater in no uncertain terms, but had deftly come short of coming right out and saying it, thus protecting him from the legal action Steinberg had been considering.
Steinberg and Woods reiterated their position this past week in China, interestingly calling Golf Channel to action despite the article's posting on Golf.com, a Time Inc. and Sports Illustrated subsidiary in no way affiliated with Golf Channel nor their parent company, NBCUniversal.
"All I am going to say is that I know I am going forward," Woods said. "But then, I don't know what the Golf Channel is going to do or not. But then that's up to them. The whole issue has been very disappointing as he didn't really apologize and he sort of reignited the whole situation.
"So the ball really is in the court of the Golf Channel and what they are prepared to do."
Woods' comments, which his agent basically echoed (even the Golf Channel bit), seemed to hint that the Golf Channel should punish Chamblee in some fashion for his Golf.com article.
Chamblee's unusual appearance to open up the Golf Central broadcast seemed to be the channel's response. Chamblee answered some solid questions from host Rich Lerner, basically reneging on his opinion and reasserting that he does not, in fact, have a vendetta against Tiger Woods.
"In offering my assessment of Tiger's year … I said Tiger Woods was cavalier about the rules. I should have stopped right there. In comparing those incidents to my cheating episode in the fourth grade, I went too far.
"Cheating involves intent. There's no way that I could know with 100-percent certainty what Tiger's intent was in any of those situations. That was my mistake."
Will Chamblee's pubic apology be enough for Team Tiger? Likely not, but that should be the end of things for the foreseeable future.
We can expect a reaction from Woods, when asked, similar to what we've seen with past dust ups a la Steve Williams, Sergio Garcia, etc. which is to say, some form of "it's in the past, I'm moving on."
But you better believe that just because it's been swept under the rug doesn't mean Woods will forgive and forget. Just ask Hank Haney. Or Charles Barkley. Or Stephen Ames. Or Vijay Singh. Or Peter Kostis. Or…
Chris Chaney is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based sportswriter. He has written for multiple outlets including WrongFairway.com, Hoopville.com, The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer and The Clermont (OH) Sun.
Follow him on Twitter @Wrong_Fairway.
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