Tiger Woods of the USA and Sergio Garcia of Spain stand on the 11th tee during round three of THE PLAYERS Championship at THE PLAYERS Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass on May 11, 2013 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images North America)
Golfer Sergio Garcia has apologized for his comments about making Tiger Woods fried chicken, but the damage may have already been done.
There has never been any love lost between the two golfers, but when Garcia made a possibly racist comment about Woods, he took the rivalry to another level.
"We will have him round every night," García said of Woods when asked how the two will get along during the US Open. "We will serve fried chicken." Garcia made the comments to the Golf Channel.
Garcia issued a statement on Tuesday apologizing for the remark. "I apologise for any offence that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players' Awards dinner," he said. "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."
Woods took to Twitter to address the situation. "The comment that was made wasn't silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate," Woods wrote on his official Twitter account. "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 and talk about golf."
Whether Garcia meant the comment to be racist or not, it was a poor choice of words given the history between he and Woods, as well as the incident that happened with Woods and golfer Fuzzy Zoeller in 1997, when Zoeller also made a remark about fried chicken and Woods.
Woods and Garcia traded words through the media last week when Garcia complained that Woods went for a club while Garcia was setting up a shot as a distraction. Woods denied the claim.
SOURCE: CBS
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