Racist Golfer?

[Hybrid Gojira]

The link and story arew about Kelly Tilghman and her comment concerning Tiger Woods being "lynched." The comment was made, reportedly, in jest that Tiger basically owns everyone at golf. No doubt something is brewing with the young lady's career probably being in jeopardy, Read on.

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3186158

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."

"On Friday during our golf broadcast, Nick Faldo and I were discussing Tiger's dominance in the golf world and I used some poorly chosen words," Tilghman said in a statement. "I have known Tiger for 12 years and I have apologized directly to him. I also apologize to our viewers who may have been offended by my comments."


The story was first reported by New York Newsday.

The Golf Channel also responded to the situation.

"We regret the unfortunate choice of words that Kelly used during the broadcast and apologize to anyone who was offended by her remarks," the network said in its statement. "We take this matter very seriously. She has apologized privately to Tiger and publicly on the air."

Tilghman, who played college golf at Duke, works as the main play-by-play announcer during The Golf Channel's PGA Tour telecasts.

She obviously made an idiotic comment, at least to be an announcer. Still, announcers should know better, especially since they um ANNOUNCE everything going on and are paid for commentary. Not smart for her. My verdict? Depending on the intent of her comment, she should either be 1) fired or 2) punished but not terminated. People who know her within her company would also know the type of person she is and thus have a better insight about her comment being pointedly racist. Either way it was out of line.

[Goji Son]

Meh, it wasn't intentional and wasn't said in a spiteful manner. Hardly anything to fire someone over, announcers are human as well and sometimes the words they choose (especially when they are making the comment on the fly) aren't always processed before it is said. It wasn't the best comment to make but nothing worth any more trouble that has already occurred.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I doubt that she was candidly trying to be racist and would suggest her comment was just in jest because of Tiger's domination of golf. At the same point, you just can't say certain things as an announcer covering a sports event, even if it was a jokeful gesture. This is one of those cases.

But I would hate to see someone lose their job over this. Sometimes the mouth says things and the brain thinks "oops" a little too late.

But if it was indeed pointedly trying to incite violence, then that would be grounds for immediate termination and should be.

[Gorjirus]

I don't think she should be fired, and most people I've read have been over-reacting to it.

So she made a "tasteless" joke, where lynched should have been replaced with a more PC synonym.



But really, c'mon. When qare we going to move past the stage where you can't say anything about/involving a black person and it being called racist?

[SuperXAsh]

Originally Posted by Gorjirus

But really, c'mon. When qare we going to move past the stage where you can't say anything about/involving a black person and it being called racist?

Probably NEVER Gor. e_e

[Raptor]

She got suspended. Over-reaction on EVERYONE'S part IMO.
You want to be picky? How come about every article about the murdered Marine in North Carolina has to mention her pregnancy in the headline? GOING OVERBOARD in both situations as far as I'm concerned.
BTW, sports coverage is a lot more editorialized than regular news reporting. Like in resume preparation, you're going to run into a lot of "action" words, right?
Hey! If she would have said, "Young players should be GUNNING to overcome Tiger Woods' supremacy in golf," would that have suggested someone SHOOT him and there would be as much uproar about it?