Garcia makes insensitive remark about Woods

Garcia makes insensitive remark about Woods










The Sports Xchange May 21, 2013 10:30 PMThe SportsXchange



The verbal sparring between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods keeps getting uglier.

On Tuesday during a European Tour awards dinner, a TV reported jokingly asked Garcia whether he might invite Woods to dinner during the U.S. Open.

Garcia replied, "We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken."

Later, Garcia tried to smooth over the racially insensitive remark with a statement issued by the European Tour.

"I apologize for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players' Awards dinner," the statement read. "I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner."

Garcia and Woods have feuded since they played in the same group during the third round of The Players Championship on May 11. Garcia complained that Woods riled the gallery at Sawgrass when he pulled a club from his bag from across the fairway while Garcia was preparing to hit a shot.

Garcia later suggested that the world's No. 1 player should have known better. Woods countered that he thought Garcia had already hit.

"Not real surprising that he's complaining about something," Woods commented at the time.

Since then, the two players have done little to mask their feelings about one another.

: On Monday, Garcia suggested that Woods has a problem with honesty.

"He called me a whiner. That's probably right," Garcia said. "It's also probably the first thing he's told you guys that's true in 15 years. I know what he is like. You guys are finding out."

He added that he didn't plan to call Woods to discuss the matter.

"First of all, I don't have his number," Garcia said. "And secondly, I did nothing wrong and don't have anything to say to him. And he wouldn't pick up the phone, anyway."

Garcia's latest remark resembled a response by Fuzzy Zoeller in 1997 when asked what Woods would have on the menu after his won his first Masters title.

"You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it? Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve," Zoeller said.

Sergio Garcia's racist comment makes him the loser in his feud with Tiger Woods

Sergio Garcia's racist comment makes him the loser in his feud with Tiger Woods











Martin Rogers May 22, 2013 9:54 AMYahoo Sports







View gallery.

The feud between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods escalated through The Players Championship. (Getty Images)Just for a while there, Sergio Garcia actually had it pretty good; back in form, contending on Sundays and holding the sympathetic vote in an edgy little rivalry with the best player in the business. And then, with a pair of ill-chosen words, it all changed.



Garcia took his ongoing verbal joust with Tiger Woods way out of bounds at an awards dinner for the European Tour on Tuesday, foolishly joking that he would invite the world No.1 around for dinner during the U.S. Open and saying, "We will serve fried chicken." An immediate and seemingly genuine apology was issued but not in time to prevent everything from having shifted.

The Spaniard's words took a soap opera founded on mutual dislike, but one that was amusing, entertaining and occasionally childish, down a thorny path littered with racist undertones that golf wants no part of.

In a split second he ensured that his part in the pantomime is now most certainly that of villain, and those who sympathized with him in his dispute with Woods will now rapidly scatter.

"What seemed to be a funny question, and I tried to give a funny answer – it came out totally wrong," Garcia said Wednesday in what amounted to his second apology. "I want to make sure everybody knows I'm very, very sorry. I can't apologize enough times.

"As soon as I left the dinner, I started getting a sick feeling in my body. I didn't really sleep at all. I felt like my heart was going to come out of my body. I've had this sick feeling all day. Difficult to hit a shot all day."

The Tiger and Sergio Show began in earnest during the second round of The Players Championship, with Garcia complaining he had been distracted by crowd noise excitement caused by Woods pulling a club out of his bag while he was about to swing.






View gallery.

Sergio Garcia immediately apologized for his remarks about Tigers Woods. (Getty Images)Tit-for-tat exchanges in news conferences, post-round interviews and television segments followed, with Garcia describing Woods as "not the nicest guy on tour" andWoods responding with a blunt "no" when asked if there was a reconciliation between the pair in the works.



Yet aside from the Tiger diehards – those lovable souls who choke at the mere hint of a suggestion that the world's greatest golfer might not be the cuddliest of characters – Garcia seemed to have many observers on his side.

Garcia's portrayal of Woods as an arrogant and aloof opponent who cares little for his peers did ring somewhat true, and the simmering tension injected a dash of spice into the sometimes vanilla world of top level golf. Furthermore, there was that nagging sense that as long as this spat continued, Garcia might be able to channel it to help him play better, maintain his strong start to the season and bring him bounding up the world rankings.

With a game built on confidence, Garcia has never shied away from hostile obstacles and some of his finest hours have come in the cauldron-like atmosphere of the Ryder Cup.

With each fresh outburst or snub, the rivalry – one that stretches back nearly a decade and a half to when a teenage Garcia gave eventual champion Woods a fright on the final day of the 1999 PGA Championship – drew in a few more souls whose interest in the game is normally reserved only for the majors.

There is nothing like playground histrionics from two leading stars to engage the audience in the gap between the Masters and the summer showpieces. Having two strong characters make no secret whatsoever about the fact they have no time for the other carried delicious appeal.

But then Garcia went and blew it with a moment of idiocy that turned him into a cautionary tale and gifted him membership to the Fuzzy Zoeller School of Inappropriate Speech (Hon. President Steve Williams).

Garica, who doesn't have Woods' phone number, reached out to Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg.

"I would love to talk to him as soon as possible and make sure everything is OK," Garcia explained.

It matters not that the apology swiftly arose from Garcia’s own free will and reflection and not as a response to a public outcry.

Or that Garcia had the class not to try to hide behind the pitiful excuse of "cultural differences" that his countrymen on the Spanish basketball team used when defending a slant-eyed gesture they made ahead of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Because it is too late. Woods is now the victim, the one with the sympathy. And the one with the last laugh.

"The comment that was made wasn't silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate …" Tiger said via Twitter. "I'm confident that there is real regret that the remark was made."

For a player once seen as having unlimited promise, it must already hurt Garcia enough to compare his career, devoid of a single major title, with that of 14-time major winner and 78-time tournament victor Woods.

Garcia’s confidence is always prone to disappear at a moment’s trigger, and the scrutiny that will inevitably follow this furor could be enough to halt the momentum that had been building nicely through seven top-20 finishes and four top-10s in the eight PGA starts to date in 2013.

Notwithstanding the fact, of course, that even that run pales in comparison to Woods' four victories on the year, his return to the top spot in the sport and now even the moral high road from which to peer down on Garcia.

Suddenly, it is not so much fun being Sergio Garcia anymore, and it is entirely of his own making.

Woods calls Garcia's comment 'hurtful'

Woods calls Garcia's comment 'hurtful'










The Sports Xchange May 22, 2013 10:31 AMThe SportsXchange



Tiger Woods responded Wednesday morning to Sergio Garcia's fried chicken remark made a night earlier, saying it was insensitive but that the golf rivals should move past their verbal sparring.

"The comment that was made wasn't silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate," Woods tweeted. "I'm confident that there is real regret that the remark was made.

"The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it's long past time to move on and talk about golf."

During a European Tour awards dinner on Tuesday night at the BMW PGA Championship in Virginia Water, England, Garcia responded to a question about inviting Woods to dinner at the U.S. Open in June.

"We'll have him 'round every night," Garcia said. "We will serve fried chicken."

Garcia issued an apology later in the evening for the racially insensitive comment.

"I apologize for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during the European Tour Players' Awards dinner," Garcia said in a statement. "I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner."

Garcia said he was sorry again Wednesday during a news conference.

"Obviously, finally, most importantly, I want to apologize to Tiger and anyone I could have offended by the comment I made," he said. "I just want to say I feel sick about it, and I'm truly, truly sorry. ... I hope we can move on."

Garcia emphasized that he wasn't trying to be racist and that he had reached out to Woods' agent.

"It was very hard," Garcia said. "As soon as I left the dinner, I started getting a sick feeling on my body. I really didn't sleep at all last night."

The spat started at The Players Championship earlier this month when Woods and Garcia played together during the third round. As Garcia prepared to hit a shot on the second hole, he said Woods pulled a club from his bag across the fairway, which caused the crowd to stir and distracted Garcia. A dispute ensued between the two.

Garcia clearly doesn't get along with the world's No. 1 player.

"I mean, you can't like everybody," Garcia said earlier Tuesday. "I think that there's people that you connect with and there's people that you don't. You know, it's pretty much as simple as that. I think that he doesn't need me in his life, I don't need him in mine, and let's move on and keep doing what we're doing.''