This golf announcer needed a censor button.
British Open commentator Mark Roe — according to the Daily Mail — made a startling accusation Thursday when he speculated that Tiger Woods is using “quite a lot of painkillers.”
“You look at the eyes, you gotta think that there’s quite a lot of painkillers being taken to cope with the pain, ya know,” he said as part of Peacock’s featured holes commentary as Woods put his gloves in his pants while walking the course at Royal Troon in Scotland. “Not easy.”
Regardless of whether Woods is using painkillers to manage his chronic pain, for an announcer to publicly allege such a thing is quite a stunning soundbite.
Add in that it’s being based on how Woods’ eyes looked and it’s even more shocking.
There’s also the seriousness of the topic when it comes to Woods and painkillers, with the golfer having painkillers Hydrocodone and Hydromorphone in his system when police arrested him in May of 2017 on a DUI charge after finding him asleep at the steering wheel, according to NBC.
The 48-year-old golfer also entered a rehab facility that year for an addiction to prescription pills.
Woods has dealt with various injuries during the latter portion of his career, with close friend Notah Begay III outlining the ailments prior to Woods’ appearance at the Masters in April.
“He’s got zero mobility in that left ankle and really has low-back challenges now, which he knew he was going to have,” Begey III told USA Today.
Former No. 2 Colin Montgomerie hinted at the injuries making golf more of a challenge than fun for Woods before the British Open started Thursday.
“I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him,” Montgomerie told The Times of London. “There is none of that now. At Pinehurst [for the U.S. Open last month] he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there either.”
While the comments will overshadow Woods’ showing Thursday, he’s off to a rather poor start, shooting six over par through his first 14 holes.
Woods is not alone in his issies in what has already been a wild day at Royal Troon is Scotland, with top golfers Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau struggling after their U.S. Open duel.