Shortly after defending his Golf.com on Tiger Woods and cheating in an Associated Press story yesterday, Brandel Chamblee sent out the following tweets last night.

Why the sudden retreat from Chamblee?

Did the Golf Channel and NBC, which owns the Golf Channel, put pressure on Chamblee to stop throwing gasoline on the fire here? Yesterday’s comments were far more damning than what he wrote in the original piece, where it actually was buried in his season-in-review.

There’s definitely a good chance Chamblee received a series of calls from Golf Channel officials about this matter. The last thing it wants is the No. 1 player in the world boycotting the network. Not a good situation if you’re a channel dedicated to golf.

Also, the Golf Channel likely heard from the PGA Tour about this matter. Having your top player accused of being a cheater isn’t good for business or the game. Considering the network’s heavy menu of tournaments and relationship with the highly-image conscious Tour, yet another reason to try to put out this fire before it becomes an inferno.

It is curious to note that Chamblee has not appeared on the Golf Channel to address his comments and the fallout. It definitely is the biggest golf story of the week. Chamblee works for the Golf Channel. Why not put him on the air to address the matter?

I can’t believe Golf Channel thinks this is just going to go away. At some point, Chamblee will have to discuss the whole affair in front of a Golf Channel logo.

I suspect the Woods camp will want more than a Twitter apology from Chamblee. Even then, I think the damage might already be done. Woods, who definitely knows how to hold a grudge, will want to make Chamblee pay, and his main employer, Golf Channel, still could be impacted.

Also, regarding last night’s tweet, I think that Chamblee found himself way out on the limb here, much further than he imagined. Perhaps he underestimated the intense reaction to his comments, forcing him to find a way to get back to safer ground.

The key line in the tweets is Chamblee saying, “golf is a gentleman’s game.” Indeed, I’ve been covering golf since 1997, and I can’t recall an incident of a player calling out another player as a cheater. Help me out if I’m wrong here.The Vijay Singh thing happened in the ’80s.

“A gentleman” doesn’t label a player as a cheater in public. Instead, it is handled internally, away from the cameras.

Labeling a player as “a cheater” is the worst allegation in golf. Chamblee knows that. Perhaps he realized what he wrote violated the “gentleman” code of the game.

However, notice that Chamblee didn’t apologize for his comments. He apologized for “this incited discourse.”

Clearly, Chamblee thinks Woods crossed the line this year, especially with the penalty he incurred at the BMW Championship. Chamblee is dogged in his beliefs. His views about Woods here haven’t been altered one bit.

All in all, it should make for must-see viewing when Chamblee does appear on Golf Channel again.