FanHouse Kelly Tilghman

In the midst of a coaches' teleconference about 10 years ago, Nolan Richardson proffered why the conference, the SEC, in which he coached the Arkansas basketball team, was so stout. It was located in the South, he said, ground zero for slavery, and, as a result, the many black players who were the stars of the SEC were the products of purposeful breeding by slave owners of "big black [men] with his big woman so he [slave owner] would have a big black kid."

Coach Richardson continued to coach without much criticism and any sanction for his historical hysteria. He wasn't tarred and feathered like Jimmy the Greek was so famously for making similar comments.

Coach Richardson was spared because, unlike The Greek, he is black. He was handed a pass because of the extra gravitas he carried as the second black coach to lead a team to a Final Four championship, and because we in the media -- especially commentators of color -- are particularly uncomfortable criticizing people of color for such transgressions and gaffes.

Tiger Woods lost. Those are three words you almost never hear. And, after Wednesday's strong performance, many people -- including myself and Ryan Wilson -- thought Tiger had a pretty good chance to win the Accenture Match Play event. But Tim Clark shot 6-under through 16 holes, Tiger didn't strike his irons well and he lost.

It's not a crushing blow for Woods' return, obviously, but it does quickly remind us that he is indeed human. And it takes a little excitement out of the remaining matches in the tournament.

You know, being racist is a bad thing, I'm sure we all can agree. But, being racist on live television? Yeah, that's going to get you a little heat.

Sky Sports reporters, when broadcasting the HSBC Champions last week from Shanghai, China, thought they had run into Anthony Kim the night before at the hotel. Yeah, that's fine. Not being sure if it was him because, "all these Chinese people" were around, is not.

Richard Boxall and Bruce Critchley are golf announcers on Sky TV and worked last week's HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, won by Sergio Garcia. But the most jarring moment came when the pair were talking on air about rising American star Anthony Kim.

"With all these Chinese people around, I'm not sure if I bumped into him [Kim] in the hotel reception last night," Boxall said. "I'm not sure if it was him."

Countdown to Annihilation: the 2008 Ryder Cup is less than a month away. In the coming weeks, American captain Paul Azinger will fill out his roster while trying to avoid another biennial beatdown.

Nick Faldo will captain the Euros; as a six-time major winner and fine Ryder Cup player in his own right, he seems like a perfectly logical choice for the gig. As it turns out, he's anything but. You see, Faldo is a weird dude. I mean really weird.

He's been that way his entire career, but the 1999 Ryder Cup offers the perfect example of how trouble finds Faldo:

[1999 Euro Ryder Cup captain Mark] James and Faldo have had a long running enmity that goes back to the early 1990s when they clashed over the state of European Tour courses, and culminated with James ripping up a good luck letter from Faldo at the 1999 Ryder Cup.

James was supposed to serve as Torrance's vice captain in 2002 but was forced to resign after complaints from Faldo over James' explosive book "Into the Bear Pit."

James isn't the only Brit who's not fond of Faldo. Apparently, it's a kingdom-wide thing. From today's London Times:

Tiger Woods is alive and well, even though he's not scheduled to make his triumphant return to the PGA Tour until sometime next spring. Meanwhile, during an interview on CNBC's Power Lunch this afternoon, Eldrick touched on the typical fare: he's recovering well, loves spending time with his family, can't wait to play tournament golf, blah blah blah.

He also managed to get in a plug for EA Sports AND Gillette, and name-drop both Derek Jeter and Roger Federer. After dispensing with the pleasantries, however, host Bill Griffeth got all journalistic, asking Tiger his thoughts on the whole sordid LPGA mess. Awkwardness ensued:

Griffeth: Let me ask you something before you go, here ... Golfweek broke it on Monday, the New York Times put it on the front page today -- you probably saw that -- the LPGA is now going to require all of their golfers to be conversant in English next year, or face suspension. Good idea, bad idea?

Tiger: I don't know, that's the first time I heard about it. I was just in Dubai and I just got back, so ... um, that's the first time I actually heard about that, so...

Ah, yes, the ol' "I was out of the country" excuse. That used to work really well before the advent of the telegraph, and later, the phone and a little something Al Gore likes to call the internet.

It gets better:

Earlier MDS noted that the Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg caught up with Stuart Scott at the Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am yesterday, and like most people at pro-am events, they talked about sports blogs.

Near the end of Steinberg's post on the festivities, he notes that Scott's answer of the day came in an interview with Sports Groove's Mark Gray, "who asked about the criticism Tiger receives for not being outspoken enough." Scott's response:

"All the people who say Tiger doesn't do enough, stop," Scott said. "Shut up. Shut up....He's got about as much money as Oprah, but it's important for him to do something tangible for kids. Tangible."

As much as it pains me, I agree with Scott on this one. For some reason, certain segments of the population think high-profile athletes should have an opinion on every social issue under the sun.

During the "hey, I got an idea: let's lynch Tiger!" fiasco, Jim Brown said Woods "waited until it was politically correct to come out and he should have come out right away." Maybe. Or perhaps Tiger just wanted the whole thing to blow over. Frankly, I have no idea why he didn't hold a press conference denouncing Kelly Tilghman as the next coming of Hitler (or worse, the Celtics), but I can't begrudge the guy for how he ultimately chose to deal with it the matter.

Just when you thought cuddly U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate couldn't get any more lovable. One of the happiest guys on the planet told WJAR-TV that he's not upset by Johnny Miller's "[Rocco] looks like the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool" comments.

Mediate told WJAR-TV that Miller's comments had been blown out of proportion. "It doesn't bother me at all," he said. "He definitely didn't do it on purpose."

He called Miller "quite a good announcer" because he says what's on his mind. He said the analyst had left him a voicemail and he planned to call him back.

I have no idea if he made the comments on purpose, and although, based on FanHouse reader feedback (which is certainly representative of the country's feelings on the issue), a lot of people don't consider Miller "quite a good announcer," I tend to agree with Mediate. That said, this isn't the first time Miller's been called out for speaking his mind.

From a 2000 interview with Golf Digest's Tom Callahan:

Johnny Miller is sorry. He's sorry he described U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate as looking like "the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool," he's sorry for later commenting that "guys with the name of Rocco don't get the trophy, do they?", and he's particularly sorry now that he's being called on it.

"I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful," Miller said in a statement. He added that his intention was to "convey my affection and admiration for Rocco's everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage."

Meanwhile, Jemele Hill's people are feverishly mounting a "Johnny Miller defense" for her Boston/Hitler comments. You see, Jemele was just trying to convey her affection and admiration for The Hub and it's everyman qualities and it had absolutely nothing to do with an insane murderous tyrant.

According to the New York Times, earlier this week, A. Kenneth Ciongoli, the chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, sent a very well-reasoned letter to Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports:

Vijay Singh's quest to alienate professional golfers around the globe continues. After winning the Masters, he kindly told, well, everybody to "kiss his ass," publicly hoped Annika Sorenstam missed the cut at the 2003 Colonial, accused Phil Mickelson of tearing up Augusta's greens with his ginormous clown feet, and had his caddie sport a "Tiger Who?" lid during their 2000 President's Cup match.

That last one is sorta funny, except for the part where Woods subsequently laid the beat down on Singh during the match.

In any event, the list just got longer. Apparently, British golfers aren't winning U.S. Open's because they don't work hard enough.

"Lots of them start out with the right intentions and the opportunities are there for them to become great," said Singh during practice at Torrey Pines. " Once they're on tour, though, they find themselves having a fine time and wondering, 'Why should I bother to work hard?' Their way of life is so comfortable that it doesn't matter if they have a bad tournament. The disappointment is not as big any more. There's another event the following week and they just move on."

Wow. Imagine if Kelly Tilghman had said this about, oh, I don't know, Fijian golfers.

During today's Masters broadcast, CBS announcer Bobby Clampett referred to Chinese golfer Liang Wen-Chong as "the chinaman."

According to CBS spokeswoman LeslieAnne Wade, Clampett later apologized on the Masters webcast.

Clampett has been working Amen Corner the last two days, and his commentary can be heard both online and on DirecTV. He used the "chinaman" slur while describing Liang's round and explaining that he will not make the cut.

There is no word yet on whether Clampett will be disciplined by CBS. Clampett's slur comes three months after Golf Channel announcer Kelly Tilghman was suspended for two weeks for saying that if young players want to beat Tiger Woods, they should "lynch him in a back alley."

There has also so far been no reaction from Augusta National, which is far from the world's most politically correct organization but which is known for its insistence that television announcers not say anything controversial. CBS announcer Jim Nantz frequently talks about how much classier golf in general and Augusta National in particular are than other sports and other venues, and Nantz has even criticized Woods for cursing on the course. How does he feel about one of his colleagues using a slur?

UPDATE: Bobby Clampett on 'Chinaman': If I Offended Anybody Please Accept My Sincere Apologies