A Feud Between Tiger Woods And Sergio Garcia Is Not Much Of A Feud

Golf feuds are different than most sports-related feuds. Like everything else with golf, the feuds are a bit more genteel than, say, Jeff Van Gundy hanging off the leg of Alonzo Mourning.

But a feud between Tiger Woods and basically anyone else in golf, much less perennial also-ran Sergio Garcia, is not much of a feud. Nonetheless there has been some bad blood between the two since 1999 and it was sealed when Sergio celebrated an exhibition win over Tiger like he had just won a major tournament. So the two don't like each other. Fine. What you are watching up there is Sergio Garcia excusing a terrible shot on the par-5 second hole at TPC Sawgrass by blaming Tiger Woods.

Woods hit his tee shot into the trees left of the fairway, and waded into the throng of fans to size up his options. He directed traffic, and when he pulled a fairway wood from his bag, the fans cheered. The problem was Garcia was over his ball, and while he had time to back off, he chose not to and hit a wild slice into the trees.

We can debate whether the crowd cheer actually affected the shot (though it sounds like it happens well after he strikes the ball) or follow through, but there is absolutely no denying that Sergio Garcia blames Tiger Woods for his poor shot and subsequent finish.

"Well obviously Tiger was on the left," Garcia told NBC's Steve Sands during the rain delay. "It was my shot to hit. He moved all the crowd he needed to move and I waited for that. I want to say he didn't see I was ready, but you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit. Right as I was on top of the backswing, I think he must have pulled a 5-wood or 3-wood out of the rough and obviously everybody started screaming, so that didn't help very much. It was unfortunate. I might have hit it [right] if nothing happens, you never know. If I hit a good shot there and make birdie it gets my day started in a bit of a different way."

I mean, come on Sergio. It's one thing to use a feud to psych yourself up and push yourself. But this is so lame: I might have hit it...you never know. Yes, and you might have birdied holes three through 18. Tiger might have hit himself in the face with his own club on a wild backswing. You might actually win a major one of these days. You never know.

Tiger denied any malice behind the interruption and dealt with the incident the way one deals with a gnat.

"Well, the marshals, they told me he already hit," Woods said. "So I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot, and then I hear his comments afterwards and not real surprising that he's complaining about something."

Old enemies Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia resume feud at Players Championship [Golf.com]

[NBC]