Back Nine Blog

UPDATED:  The Associated Press has released today that editor and vice president of Golfweek Dave Seanor has been immediately replaced by Jeff Babineau.   Babineau has been with the magazine for nine years and released a statement today, “We know we have a job ahead of us to re-earn the trust and confidence of many loyal readers,” Babineau said. “Our staff is very passionate about the game. Our wish is that one regretful error does not erase more than 30 years of service we’ve dedicated to this industry.”

What seemed to be a dead story has now been fueled in a huge way with the latest cover of Golfweek Magazine. A couple weeks back at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman suggested the young PGA Tour players should gang up on Tiger and lynch him in a back alley. After two weeks and an accepted apology by Woods, the story seemed all but dead.

However, this weeks issue of Golfweek Magazine (shown above) clearly has grabbed negative attention towards the magazine. Vice President and editor Dave Seanor of the magazine came out today and stated that “we knew that image would grab attention, but didn’t anticipate the enormity of it”.

One of the huge critics of the cover is PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. He found the imagery of noose to be “outrageous and irresponsible”. He followed with “it smacks of tabloid journalism. It was a naked attempt to inflame and keep alive an incident that was heading to an appropriate conclusion.”

In my opinion, I couldn’t agree more with the PGA Tour commissioner. When I think of golf magazines, I think of Golf Digest first, and never really thought of Golfweek. I think it is a sad attempt to increase their circulation. Their statement on the cover says “Tilghman slips up and the Golf Channel can’t wiggle free”. However, the general feeling was this story was in the past, Tiger accepted the apology from someone who he does know well. I think that the comment below the title is just as bad as using a picture of a noose. I really didn’t make much of Tilgman’s comments, and didn’t think any less of her for making a joke, especially since Tiger accepted the apology.