Sergio Garcia, Tiger Woods, And Fried Chicken…

I must confess that American football is the sports that I most fancy, yet I appreciate any sporting event, especially a sport like Golf that requires uncanny skills and virtually independent efforts to reach its pinnacle - no offense to all of the Caddies out there. It is from this backdrop that I come to what has been the smoldering or now outright runaway fire that is the verbal smack-downs between two of Golf’s seasoned veterans, Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia. I, for one, until recently, never knew that there was bad blood between Garcia and Woods, but, apparently, this history started when Sergio defeated Tiger, each playing for their respective countries, and in the aftermath of the victory... Sergio was engaged in what Tiger thought was over the top celebrating and a spectacle that Woods found to be disrespectful - I do not know if too much celebrating is a no no in Golfing protocol, which justified Tiger’s ill feelings toward Sergio, but this is thought to be the genesis of the bad blood between the two.

In recent matches, Sergio has claimed that Tiger gets ‘all the breaks’ and that the latter breaches Golfing protocols, which, just happen to take place when Sergio was about to or in the middle of striking the Golf ball, and, which, ultimately adversely affected the Spaniard’s play. There are some Sporting pundits that are saying that the ire on the part of Sergio’s is borne out of jealously and frustration because Sergio has not lived up to his potential in winning as often, and moreover, what was projected by some of those same golfing pundits for someone with Sergio Garcia’s golfing skills. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, notwithstanding his public, personal failings, has gotten his winning 'mojo' back and is once again racking up the golfing victories… though without any Majors so far in his comeback.

It did not help matters that Mr. Garcia recently said to a reporter’s query about inviting Tiger to dinner that were he to indeed invite Mr. Woods to dinner that he would serve him ‘fried chicken,’ a traditionally, pejorative racial stereotype attributed to Blacks - it must be noted that Fuzzy Zoeller, an iconic golf pro, once said something similar about the young Tiger Woods years ago. To be honest, Mr. Garcia has profusely apologized to Mr. Woods and all those who might have been hurt by his less than charitable remarks. This conflict, however, between Tiger and Sergio seems to be good rating-wise for Golf, which fairly or unfairly, has a reputation as an elitist sport and which also is seen as the sporting step-child rating-wise among the others like football, basketball, and baseball.

There is a racial element that is the massive elephant in the room in the conflict between Sergio and Tiger and it is manifested in the Blogosphere on this subject matter. I have written in this forum about the conspicuous hatred for Black athletes who are currently dominating in sports that were traditionally dominated by Whites like Golf and Tennis. The irony is that these Blacks - Serena Williams and Tiger Woods - who currently dominate these respective sporting events, once dominated by Whites, are the ones generating the unprecedented ratings, revenues, and winning purses in these respective sports - and for the life of me, I do not understand why they are hated… or maybe I do, but I would like to think that we have moved on. I can also discus that both Serena and Tiger date outside of their race, which is their rights… but this too may contribute to the hatred both suffer.

I would be remiss not mention that in Sergio’s home country of Spain, I once read and saw how many in his country berated and spewed racial epithets at a Black race car driver, Lewis Hamilton, who had the gaul of winning on the driving race tracks. I hope that Mr. Garcia is not emulating that sorry recent history of many of his countrymen and women when he addresses the conflict he has with Tiger Woods.