Sergio Garcia Makes Tiger Woods "Fried Chicken" Joke, Apologizes

For over a week now, we've had to talk about this weak golf "feud" between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods which started in 1999 and got heated, or at least slightly warm, a week and a half ago. Garcia hit a terrible shot on a par-5 second hole at The Players Championship, and blamed Woods for the miss, since Woods was pulling a club out of his bag, and the onlookers cheered as Garcia was lined up over the ball. He could've backed off, but he decided to power through anyway, and his shot went into the trees. He blamed Tiger.

Bloody stuff, this. Anyway, yesterday, Woods was asked if he was going to nip this beef in the bud. "No," Woods said, as is his prerogative. Garcia got pissed, or at least miffed, and had this to say. Per Golf.com:

"He called me a whiner. He's probably right," Garcia said Monday at Wentworth, England, at the start of the week of the BMW PGA Championship. "But that's also probably the first thing he's told you guys that's true in 15 years. I know what he's like. You guys are finding out."

Shots fired! It still wasn't much of a fight until, according to , Garcia escalated things yesterday. He was questioned about his relationship with Woods, and he responded relatively reasonably, saying, "I mean, you can't like everybody. 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."

Fine. But then last night at a player's awards dinner, things escalated really, really quickly:

The Spaniard was on stage at the European Tour's gala players' awards dinner, where he was questioned by the Golf Channel's Steve Sands. García, who has been embroiled in verbal battles with Woods since the Players Championship at Sawgrass this month, was asked in jest if he would have the American round for dinner one night during the upcoming US Open. "We will have him round every night," García said. "We will serve fried chicken."

Garcia seemed to be channeling the still-very-much-alive Fuzzy Zoeller, the American golfer who in 1997 called Tiger Woods "a little boy" and then continued, saying, "He's doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it." He walked away, then paused, turned over his shoulder, and added, "Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."

Seriously, that's a thing that actually happened:

So obviously the first thing everyone thought when Garcia, a white guy, made a fried chicken about Woods was, "Fuzzy Zoeller." And from there, it was only a short leap to "fucking racist." It wasn't until Garcia left the dinner that he or someone in his camp realized what had transpired. Soon after, he issued an apologetic statement through the European Tour, saying:

"I apologise for any offence that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players' Awards dinner. 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."

So that's where we are now with the suddenly-a-little-more-serious feud Garcia-Woods feud now. It's good he apologized quickly, but given their history, we can't imagine this relationship getting cuddly any time soon.

[ The Guardian]