Golf Channel has recently come under fire after former anchor/analyst Lisa Cornwell blasted network executives over mistreatment of her and other female employees.
Cornwell, who was a staple on women’s golf events from the LPGA Tour to the NCAA Championship, left Golf Channel after her contract ran out at the end of December.
“The first day in seven years I’m not in a contract with Golf Channel and am free to speak up for the many women who’ve been marginalized, belittled, berated and treated like second class citizens-including me,” wrote Cornwell in a tweet earlier this month.
She added, “The days of it being swept under the rug are over.”
Cornwell has since expanded upon the allegations when she went on the No Laying Up Podcast earlier this week.
Cornwell Speaks Up
On the Podcast, Cornwell’s first allegation came from an incident during the 2016 NCAA Championships in Oregon during dinner with coworkers.
“The person leading that dinner, and there’s 15 people there, he’s the head of Golf Central. We have a new analyst who’s had some anxiety issues on air, and he’s basically making fun of him. I stood up, he’s a friend of mine, I said ‘What are we doing? We don’t do this. This isn’t who we are,” said Cornwell.
Cornwell than shifts to incident in August of 2018 involving Golf Channel’s star analyst Brandel Chamblee.
The former Golf Channel anchor alleges that Chamblee never liked her.
Cornwell says that Chamblee was really bothered by a mistake that she made while on air anchoring with him. She admitted to making a mistake.
According to the podcast, Cornwell aired her grievances about Chamblee to the Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Geoff Russell and he said he would look into the issue.
A couple of months later, she was taken off of coverage for the 2019 NCAA Championships hosted by her alma mater, Arkansas.
“I had always hosted the women’s NCAAs since I had been at Golf Channel. I get a scheduling email that I would not be the host that year at Arkansas, that I had been demoted to a reporter, and they didn’t even have the guts to tell me,” Cornwell tells No Laying Up.
Cornwell has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
According to No Laying Up, Golf Channel and NBC have not issued a comment on the situation.