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Just days after issuing an apology, Hank Haney has now defended his prediction that a golfer called Lee would win the US Women’s Open.
Haney, Tiger Woods’ former coach, was widely condemned for disparaging remarks he made about women’s golf ahead of last week’s major at Charleston Country Club.
In a podcast for SiriusXM PGA Tour radio, the 63-year-old said that he couldn’t name six players on the LPGA, didn’t know where the event was taking lace and predicted that ‘Lee’ would win.
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“If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right,” said Haney.
The comments drew criticism from across the game. Woods, about whom he wrote a controversial book following their split in 2010, said he “got what he deserved” whilst Michelle Wie said: “Racism and sexism are no laughing matter.”
Haney apologised for the remarks and was suspended from his regular SiriusXM slot pending further investigation.
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The end of the matter? Not quite.
As South Korea’s Jeongeun Lee6 was closing out her first major victory last night – holding off Angel Yin, So Yeon Ryu and Lexi Thomson – Haney was on Twitter trying to justify the comments he made.
My prediction that a Korean woman would be atop the leaderboard at the Women’s US Open was based on statistics and facts. Korean women are absolutely dominating the LPGA Tour. If you asked me again my answer would be the same but worded more carefully.
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) June 2, 2019
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After Lee6 – who added the numerical suffix to better distinguish herself from other players with the same name – had officially sealed the title, Haney was back at the keyboard
That tweet was subsequently deleted and replaced with this:
Congratulations to Jeongeun Lee6 on your great win at the US Women’s Open. I knew you’d win. Who’s The Great Predictor now Steve Johnson @steveyrayj
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) June 3, 2019
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e later quote-tweeted a user identifying himself as ‘FREE HANK HANEY… HE WAS RIGHT’:
Thanks for the support https://t.co/A1O7TWrDiB
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) June 3, 2019
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