Abu Dhabi: Sergio Garcia insists his feud with world No 1 Tiger Woods is finally over after his emphatic apologies, as he targets a “dream” start to the year by winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
The Spaniard was accused of racism following an alleged jibe at Woods, with whom he has enjoyed an uneasy relationship, during the ‘European Tour Player of the Year’ awards in May last year.
When quizzed by American host Steve Sands if he would be inviting Woods for dinner at the US Open in June, Garcia quipped: ‘We’ll be having him round every night, and serving him fried chicken.’
His comment caused a huge furore given that fried chicken has been derogatorily referred to as a food associated with African Americans.
But on Wednesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi which starts on Thursday, Garcia stressed that he believes the fallout from his ill-considered remark has ended.
“We’ve seen each other in tournaments [since then],” he said. “I can’t apologise more. I’ve apologised and re-aplogised I think it [the feud] is over.”
Garcia admitted that he had endured a “rough” and “difficult” time following the controversy, especially at the US Open in June, when he was roundly booed.
The 34-year-old added: “Only a minority made themselves heard, but I guess that minority are the loudest and it’s never nice to be reminded of something that you don’t like and you don’t enjoy. The majority of people knew me and so they accepted my apologies. They could see that it was truthful. So that’s what kind of helped me to keep going.”
Now he is hoping to move on from that sorry episode and maintain the momentum he created in winning the Thailand Open in December, his only title of 2013, when he overcame the world No 3 Henrik Stenson by four shots.
He said: “Winning here and starting the year with a win would be great. It would be a dream come true, obviously. But it is difficult to gauge exactly how well you are feeling. There is obviously going to be a little bit of rust. Hopefully we can kind of scrape that off quickly.”
Garcia raised eyebrows in Thailand by playing with his girlfriend Katharina Boehm as his caddie — a partnership which has not lasted on the golf course.
“I wanted to keep going but she fired me,” Garcia said, laughing. “No, it was something Katharina wanted to do since we started dating. I thought that would be a good week being the end of the year. I believe it turned out pretty good.
“I think we will leave it there as she has a good winning percentage at the moment.”
