Brandel Chamblee, the Golf Channel analyst who drew unwanted attention to himself by comparing Tigers Woods to a cheater because he had several rules violations this year, issued an apology of sorts on Wednesday.
“In offering my assessment of Tiger to you, and specifically looking at the incidents in Abu Dhabi, Augusta, Ponte Vedra and Chicago, I said Tiger Woods was cavalier about the rules. I should have stopped right there,” Chamblee told Golf Channel host Rich Lerner. “In comparing those incidents to my cheating episode in the fourth grade, I went too far.
“Cheating involves intent. I know what my intent was on that fourth-grade math test. But there’s no way I could know with 100 percent certainty what Tiger’s intent was in any of those situations. That was my mistake.”
Chamblee said his editors at Golf.com asked him to rewrite the portion of his column pertaining to Woods, which he declined to do. He said he would no longer be writing for the site or for Golf Magazine after this year.
The former PGA Tour player has been a critic of Woods’ swing under coach Sean Foley. Chamblee had assessed the performance over the past year of several top players with letter grades. He gave Woods an F, though Tiger won five events on the PGA Tour this year. Woods had four rules issues, including three that resulted in two-stroke penalties.
Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg told ESPN.com he would consider legal action. On Wednesday, Steinberg declined comment and said neither he nor Woods would comment any further on the matter.