Sports

Sergio leaves apology letter in Tiger’s locker over ‘fried chicken’ comment

ARDMORE, Pa. — On Monday there was a handshake. On Tuesday there was a hand-written note of apology personally delivered to Tiger Woods’ locker by Sergio Garcia.

Dinner for two today and world peace by the end of this week’s U.S. Open?

Unlikely, but Woods and Garcia seemingly put an end to their public disdain for each other, something that has festered for 15 years and came to an ugly head last month when Garcia made a racially

insensitive joke about serving Woods “fried chicken’’ for dinner.

On Monday, Garcia sought out Woods on the Merion driving range to speak about his unfortunate racial-stereotype comment. The two shook hands and Garcia said he hoped to meet with Woods later. That meeting never took place, so Garcia wrote a note to Woods and left it in his locker yesterday.

“Yeah, I did leave him a note, a handwritten note,’’ Garcia said. “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.

“The first time I saw him was on the range [Monday]. I felt like it wasn’t the appropriate place for me to [apologize] 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 yesterday, about three hours before Garcia did, he did not indicate that he had gotten any sort of apology from Garcia.

Asked 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.’’

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 has gotten any personal apology from Garcia, Woods said, “No, we haven’t had time for that.’’

Garcia handled himself with poise and humility yesterday, clearly still bothered by the incident. He was very 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 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.’’

Asked if he expects to contend or win this week’s U.S.Open despite the off-course distractions, 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.’

“I wish I could go back in time and take back what I said, but unfortunately I said it. 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. Hopefully, like Tiger said, he’s considering the matter closed and hopefully we can all move forward and kind of start competing and respectfully and hopefully we can all have a great tournament.’’

mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com