ARDMORE, Pa. — One day after Sergio Garcia sought out Tiger Woods on the Merion driving range to speak about the racially-stereotyped “fried chicken’’ comment he made last month, the Spaniard left a hand-written note of apology in Woods’ locker.
“Yeah, I did leave him a note, a handwritten note,’’ Garcia said Tuesday. “Hopefully he can take a look at it and … read the note and he’s happy with that.
“Obviously we saw each other (Monday) on the range (and) I was hoping to meet him after the round, but he was gone after the round,’’ Garcia went on. “The weather obviously didn’t help (closing the course in the afternoon). This morning I was here early (and) I didn’t see him around.
“The first time I saw him was on the range. I felt like it wasn’t the appropriate place to, for me to (apologize) there out of respect to him and to the other players to do it there, so I was hoping to see him afterwards. Unfortunately, when I got done practicing he was gone already. He considers the matter closed. He’s moved on and I’m happy that he feels that way, so hopefully we can do the same thing.’’
When Woods met with reporters, about three hours before Garcia did, he did not indicate that he had gotten any sort of apology from Garcia.
Asked Tuesday if Garcia’s comments were discussed on Monday in that brief encounter on the range, Woods said, “No, we didn’t discuss anything. He just came up and said, ‘Hi,’ and that was it.’’
Sergio Garcia during U.S. Open practice round. (Getty Images)
Asked if Garcia apologized, Woods said, “No,’’ adding, “It’s already done. We’ve already gone through it all. It’s time for the U.S. Open and we tee it up in two days.’’
Asked again if he’s gotten any personal apology from Garcia, Woods said, “No, we haven’t had time for that.’’
Garcia handled himself with poise and humility on Tuesday, clearly still bothered by the incident, he was contrite.
“I’m obviously a little bit nervous, there’s no doubt about that,’’ Garcia said. “But like (Woods) said … he considers it closed deal. That obviously means a lot to me.’’
Garcia, too, sounded relieved that the fans at Merion have treated him well, saying there has been no heckling.
“The people around these last couple of days have been amazing,’’ he said. “They have been very, very supportive. So that gives me a lot of good feelings.’’
Garcia also conceded that he’s been “very worried about the whole situation’’ as it relates to his major sponsor, TaylorMade/adidas, which indicated in the aftermath of his comments that it might revaluate its relationship with Garcia.
“I felt terrible about it, but TaylorMade — and all of my sponsors — are aware of my apology,’’ he said. “They know how I feel about it. I’ve told them that what I want to do is be a respectful competitor to everyone and that also includes my sponsors. I know that everything I say or do affects my sponsors and I just want to be as respectful as I can to them and hopefully moving forward it wouldn’t be a problem.
“I can obviously see that I hurt a lot of people, and that doesn’t make me feel good. I wish I could go back in time and take back what I said, but unfortunately, I said it. You know, the only thing I can do is show you my respect from here moving forward.
“We all make mistakes. I’ve obviously made my fair share and you do regret your mistakes. But I think the most important thing from them is to learn, hopefully to make you a better person, hopefully you can handle things differently in the future.’’
Asked if, with all of off-course distractions, it is realistic to think he can contend or win this week’s U.S. Open, Garcia said, “I don’t know. We’ll see. It obviously doesn’t help, but it is my own fault. So I don’t have anyone to blame other than myself.’’
Garcia tip-toed around a question about whether his feelings toward Woods changed during this ordeal.
“Well, don’t get me wrong, I respect Tiger very much,’’ he said. “I think he’s a wonderful player. He’s No. 1 in the world for some reasons. He shows that. And I respect him very much and hopefully like he said, we can move forward and see where things end up.’’
Garcia made the explosive comment on May 21 at a European Tour awards dinner before the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth when a TV reporter joked to him about whether he might invite Woods to dinner at Merion during U.S. Open week.
Garcia said, “Sure, we’ll have him ‘round every night. We will serve fried chicken.’’
After the Garcia comments, Woods took to Twitter and called the slur “inappropriate and clearly hurtful.’’
Friction between the two players, who have never liked each other, heated up at The Players Championship early last month when Woods and Garcia were paired together in the third round and Garcia claimed Woods intentionally distracted him while he was taking a shot by creating a crowd reaction when he pulled a fairway metal out of his bag.
That incited a colorful back-and-forth between the two, with Woods saying he was not surprised at Garcia’s paranoia, poking fun at what he indicated was incessant complaining by Garcia.
Garcia countered by making it clear he does not like Woods.
It all culminated at that European Tour dinner, where Garcia stepped out of bounds with his comments and created the firestorm.