BY CARLOS MONARREZ
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

 

Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman will return to work Thursday, nearly three weeks after she made a glib reference to lynching Tiger Woods, and one crisis expert thinks she should apologize on-air to viewers if she ever hopes to have closure.

 

Tilghman, who said during a telecast of the PGA Tour's Mercedes-Benz Championship that players challenging Woods should "lynch him in a back alley," apologized on-air two days later and was suspended for two weeks. Woods, who is making his season debut at this week's Buick Invitational, said Monday he accepted Tilghman's personal apology.

 

But that may not be the end of the saga, according to Gene Grabowski, senior vice president of the crisis-communications firm Levick Strategic Communications in Washington. Grabowski said the situation was exacerbated by Golfweek when the magazine put a noose on the cover of its Jan. 19 issue to illustrate a story about Tilghman, which rekindled the uproar and led to the firing of editor Dave Seanor.
"Because the tension has been ratcheted up, Kelly Tilghman needs to address the issue on the air, because if she doesn't, it'll go on and on," Grabowski said. "I think she needs to address it and close the book."

 

Grabowski's firm is not working with Tilghman or the Golf Channel, but he said Tilghman should go on-air and do three things: apologize, ask for closure and then declare her love for the sport.

 

"I think certainly viewers will find some closure in that and only the most mean-spirited, unforgiving people will take issue," he said. "But if she doesn't do all or at least two out of those three things, this episode can continue."

 

Grabowski likened the situation to that of baseball's steroids scandal. He said New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte provided a blueprint for closure by admitting guilt.

 

"The other players that didn't ask for closure, didn't apologize, didn't run to the light, are going to be hounded throughout spring training," Grabowski said.

 

The Golf Channel has been tight-lipped about how or if Tilghman will address the situation this week. A network spokesman said only that Tilghman will not give interviews this week.

 

"People will forgive you," Grabowski said. "One of the things I've learned in 30 years as a reporter and as a crisis consultant is people want to forgive you. But you have to have the courage to apologize and to ask for forgiveness."