There's a buzz over the beginning of the new PGA Tour season

There's a buzz over the beginning of the new PGA Tour season, but for all the wrong reasons.

Controversy arose right from the start at the Mercedes Championship in Hawaii two weeks ago.

That's where Golf Channel announcer Kelly Tilghman created a tempest with her comment about Woods. The fallout cost Golfweek's long-time editor his job this week, and Woods himself is taking some heat.

If you missed it, near the end of the second-round Mercedes telecast, color analyst Nick Faldo and Tilghman were trying to be funny in suggesting ways young players can mount a challenge to Woods' dominance. Tilghman suggested they "lynch him in a back alley."

News of her racially charged language spread slowly, escalating after reaching political activist Al Sharpton, who called for her firing.

Tilghman apologized to Woods the day after she made the comment and two days later apologized to viewers. Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, released a statement saying: "Tiger and Kelly are friends, and Tiger has a great deal of respect for Kelly. Regardless of the choice of words used, we know unequivocally that there was no ill intent in her comments. This story is a non-issue in our eyes. Case closed."

Not hardly.

Debate has steadily grown over the proper response the remark required, not just the Golf Channel's response, but from Woods, too.

Five days after Tilghman made the statement, the Golf Channel suspended her for two weeks.

Tilghman's suspension is scheduled to end with Woods making his debut this week, but it's unclear if she'll return to her lead announcer's chair when the Buick Invitational begins Thursday, or whether she'll be reassigned.

Though Woods was the target of Tilghman's remark, he's also being scrutinized. His lack of outrage offended more than one commentator nationally, stirring old questions about whether Woods should take a prominent public role in social issues.

"Tiger was too quick to dismiss lynching comment."

That was the headline above DeWayne Wickham's column in USA Today. "This is not something Tiger Woods can simply blow off," Wickham wrote.

Barry Saunders of the News & Observer of Raleigh was among those taking Woods to task.

"Even if Tiger Woods doesn't have historical sense enough to know what words mean, the rest of us do," Saunders wrote. "And we shouldn't let it slide."

Golfweek heightened the debate last week when it carried the photo of a hangman's noose on its cover with the headline: "Caught in a Noose ... Tilghman slips up and Golf Channel can't wriggle free." On Friday, Golfweek Vice President and Editor Dave Seanor was fired. The news came with Golfweek releasing a statement apologizing for offending "consumers, advertisers and subscribers."