Former PGA Tour player Mark Lye out as SiriusXM host due to WNBA comments

SiriusXM has parted ways with former PGA Tour pro Mark Lye, who made controversial comments about women's basketball during a show on Saturday.

«You know the LPGA Tour, to me, is a completely different tour than it was 10 years ago,» Lye said Saturday on PGA Tour Radio. «You couldn't pay me to watch. You really couldn't, because I couldn't relate at all. It's kind of like, if you were a basketball player, and I'm not trashing anybody, please don't take it the wrong way.

»I saw some highlights of ladies' basketball. Man. Is there a gun in the house? I'll shoot myself [before] I watch that."

Lye confirmed his firing to Golf.com. «I was terminated about comments made about the WNBA, which I apologized for starting the next segment,» he said.

After making the comments on Saturday, Lye attempted to explain what he said on Twitter.

The fact that I can't relate to WNBA does not make me sexist in any way. All you haters should listen to the whole segment, where I completely glorified womens golf, which I love to cover. Thanks for listening.

Lye, 69, played on the PGA Tour from 1977 to 1994 and won the 1983 Bank of Boston Classic. He finished tied for sixth at the 1984 Masters.

In May 2019, instructor Hank Haney, who gained fame by working with Tiger Woods, was suspended and then terminated by Sirius XM for what the PGA Tour and SiriusXM said were insensitive comments about women's golf.

While previewing the 74th U.S. Women's Open, Haney said, «I'm gonna predict a Korean [to win].… That's gonna be my prediction. I couldn't name you, like, six players on the LPGA Tour.»

Haney continued: «Nah, maybe I could. Well, I'd go with Lee. If I didn't have to name a first name, I'd get a bunch of them right.»

Haney sued the PGA Tour in