Sergio apologizes to Tiger following racially insensitive remark

Update April 9, 2017: Sergio Garcia won the Masters, his first major championship, and Tiger Woods was among the first people to congratulate him on Twitter:

The post that follows, originally published May 29, 2013, is about the evolution of their relationship over time.

Sergio Garcia can’t apologize enough for the racist crack he made at Tiger Woods’ expense last month. But even after trying in vain to offer a face-to-face mea culpa to his arch foe, the former El Nino just could not cough up any warm fuzzies about the game’s top-ranked golfer.

“Don’t get me wrong, I respect Tiger very much. I think he’s a wonderful player,” Garcia, who was reduced to leaving a handwritten apology letter in Woods’ locker at Merion after apparently even a GPS would have failed to locate the offended party at the site of this week’s U.S. Open.

Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia had time to shake hands on the practice range at Merion on Monday, but the world No. 1 said his long-time nemesis has not yet delivered a face-to-face mea culpa.

“No, we haven’t had time for that,” Woods told reporters Tuesday about whether Garcia had issued a personal apology for his ill-advised “fried chicken” joke that raised the ugly image of racial stereotypes.

Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia, in their first encounter since the latter’s “fried chicken” remark, met Monday on the practice range at Merion Golf Club prior to this week’s U.S. Open and shook hands.

Woods, who upbraided Garcia via Twitter for the Spaniard’s inappropriate comment and subsequent apology, declined to discuss the pair’s meeting with reporters.

Tiger Woods has winning next month’s U.S. Open on his mind and said Wednesday that his years-long spat with Sergio Garcia was history.

“It’s already done with,” Woods told reporters gathered at Muirfield Golf Club for this week’s Memorial Tournament about the silly-turned-ugly squabble that took center course at The Players Championship and devolved into a racially tinged row in the intervening days. “It’s time to move on.”

Indeed, to Nicklaus, who took to the podium Wednesday ahead of this week’s Memorial Tournament at his Muirfield Village Golf Club, the whole thing between Woods and Garcia is just plain idiotic.

“The Sergio-Tiger thing, I mean,” Nicklaus said, with a pause, “it’s stupid.”

Sergio Garcia may not receive a fine, suspension, or any other type of discipline from the European and PGA Tours, but the financial and other ramifications for the Spanish golfer’s racially insensitive remarks could be punitive.

Garcia, who apologized on Wednesday to the tours, Woods, and “anybody I could have offended” by his fried chicken comment has already heard from his primary sponsor, TaylorMade-Adidas, which distanced itself from the embattled player.

Tiger Woods was in the scorer’s trailer when Sergio Garcia put the last of three balls in the water down the stretch to fall out of contention for the 2013 Players Championship. Somehow, however, Garcia still managed to blame his nemesis for distracting him during Saturday’s third round.

“It sounds like I was the bad guy here,” Garcia told reporters after posting a final-round 4-over 76 that included a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 17th and a double on the last. “I was the victim. I don’t have any regrets about anything.”