Brandel Chamblee apologizes for ‘unfortunate choice of words’ after controversial interview

March 25, 2020

Golf Channel

Brandel Chamblee’s widely broadcast opinions on the golf swing and golf instruction have made him one of the most high-profile commentators in the game. He regularly espouses his theories on Golf Channel, through his lively Twitter feed and has even compiled his views into a book, The Anatomy of Greatness.

One of his latest takes, however, has resulted in something golf fans don’t often hear from Chamblee: an apology.

In an interview with Golfweek, Chamblee argued that the propagation of flawed swing theories has been stunted by the flood of golf swings and instruction on YouTube, which essentially allows students to fact-check their teachers:

“I think that people realize the movement patterns and the teaching philosophy of 30, 40 years ago has run into YouTube videos and social media, which acts as purity for teaching and I believe about five, six, seven years ago the whole instruction world, the pendulum began to shift away from restriction to more freedom to move, to turn.”

Which led Chamblee to this point:

“The teachers are being exposed for their idiocy, but I stood on the range with a prominent teacher who had acolytes all around him who then went out and those acolytes talk with acolytes and then they completely spread this flawed philosophy through all of teaching and all teachers stuck to that ideal and all teachers taught flawed philosophies and these philosophies finally got bitch-slapped by reality. YouTube, there it is, you’re wrong, they’re right.”

Chamblee is not one to back down from his opinions — this one included — but he did regret the “offensive” phrasing in his answer. On Wednesday, Chamblee took to Twitter to apologize:

I sincerely apologize for an unfortunate choice of words in the Golfweek interview. While the phrase was meant to mean harsh criticism,seeing words in black and white make you realize different contexts. Either way this was a poor choice of words that is offensive and I apologize
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) March 25, 2020

When reached by GOLF.com, Chamblee said, “I’ve been at this for 20 years and work hard at choosing the right words, and would like to think that I choose them carefully but this wasn’t my best work.”

You can read the Golfweek interview in its entirety here.

To receive GOLF’s all-new newsletters, subscribe for free here.