Hank Haney suggests vindication in Lee6's win for his disparaging comments about women's golf
Golf Culture

Hank Haney suggests vindication in Lee6’s win for his disparaging comments about women’s golf

Credit: Callaway Golf
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As Jeongeun Lee6 was winning the 2019 US Women's Open in South Carolina, Hank Haney was tweeting with a sense of vindication about his disparaging analysis of women's golf that got him suspended from his SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show.

On the Wednesday version of Haney's show, "Hank Haney Golf Radio," Haney led off his show with comments about the Women's Open. He feigned ignorance the event was happening as co-host Steve Johnson solicited Haney's thoughts on the tournament.

"I’m gonna predict a Korean," Haney said, before adding, "I couldn’t name you six players on the LPGA Tour. Maybe I could. Well… I’d go with Lee, if I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right."

Johnson added in a snarky tone, "We’ve got 6 Lees."

Six players with the last name Lee were in the field. However, one is American, one is from Australia and four are from South Korea. That wasn't Haney's implication. It was demeaning the players to just a common Korean surname despite a broader diversity on the LPGA.

Tournament winner Jeongeun Lee6 is the youngest player to earn status on the Korean LPGA Tour with that name. On the Tour, players are assigned a number in chronological order of when they appear on the Tour. Lee6 is the sixth player with the name. However, in the US Women's Open field, not all six Jeongeun Lees were competing. Rather the first Jeongeun Lee and Jeongeun Lee6 were playing.

However, as Lee6 was pulling away from the contenders, Haney took to Twitter to suggest his comments were based on some deeply thought-out methodology.

Had Haney been more thoughtful in his commentary, it would have almost certainly flown under the radar. However, that wasn't the case.

Haney then attempted to congratulate Lee on her win at the Country Club of Charleston. After initially misspelling her name, he tried to make light of his comments, saying, "I knew you'd win."

Haney will not be on at his normal 10 a.m. timeslot on Monday. Some 30 hours after his comments aired, the PGA Tour and SiriusXM jointly announced Haney was suspended and his future position at the network would be pending further review. In the news release, Haney was quoted as apologizing for his remarks.

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is a scratch golfer...sometimes.

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