Mark Lye, a former PGA Tour winner turned golf commentator, said Sunday he was fired from his role as a SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio host over comments he made a day earlier about the WNBA.
In an email to GOLF.com, a SiriusXM spokesperson confirmed that Lye, 69, âwill no longer be hosting.â
Lyeâs comments came on Saturdayâs episode of The Scorecard, during a discussion of the LPGA. A Twitter user captured and shared 59 seconds of the conversation:
âYou know, the LPGA Tour to me is a completely different tour than it was 10 years ago,â Lye said. â⦠You couldnât pay me to watch. You really couldnât. Because I just, I couldnât relate at all. Itâs kind of like, you know, if youâre a basketball player â and Iâm not trashing anybody; please, donât take it the wrong way â but I saw some highlights of ladiesâ basketball. Man, is there a gun in the house? Iâll shoot myself than watch that.
âYou know, I love watching the menâs basketball. I love watching the menâs golf. I never used to like watching ladiesâ golf. But I will tell you this. Iâve been up close watching these ladies play because I used to have a big function every year called the Lucas Cup and Iâd have LPGA players and PGA Tour players.â
At this point, a co-host interjected: âGood luck getting some WNBA stars to come play for you.â
âYeah, I know, I know,â Lye said. âIâm off their list. Iâm sorry about that.â
Reached on Sunday by GOLF.com, Lye said, âI was terminated about comments made about the WNBA, which I apologized for starting the next segment.â
Lye also posted this explanation to Twitter: âThe fact that I canât relate to WNBA does not make me sexist in any way. All you haters should listen to the whole segment, where I completely glorified womens golf, which I love to cover. Thanks for listening.â
On Sunday afternoon, the Saturday episode of The Scorecard was no longer available on the SiriusXM website.
Lye played on the PGA Tour from 1977 to 1995, notching 41 top 10s; his sole victory came at the Bank of Boston Classic, in 1983. From 2003 to 2008, he played on the PGA Tour Champions, with one top-10 finish.
Lye also worked as an analyst for Golf Channel from 1994 to 2012, according to his LinkedIn page.