The Sergio and Tiger feud continues at PLAYERS Championship
Garcia accuses Woods of bad gamesmanship during the third round of the PLAYERS Championship.
Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods aren’t exactly the best of friends. Garcia was pretty blatant about it following his third round in which he was paired with Woods and finished in a tie for the lead.
“He’s not my favorite guy to play with. He’s not the nicest guy on Tour. So it will good for both us not to play together again”, Garcia said.
Luckily they weren’t paired with each other for the final round thanks to Swede David Lingmerth who also held a share of the lead.
The bad blood between Woods and Garcia goes back a long way but yesterday Garcia seemed to claim that Woods either deliberately or recklessly pulled a 3-wood out of his bag in prearation for his next shot which caused the crowd to cheer right in the middle of Garcia’s back swing. Woods was in the trees and the gallery were clearly pleased that Woods was not going to chip out.
During a rain delay in the middle of the third round, Garcia was asked about the incident that saw him leer over towards Woods after slicing his shot.
“Well, obviously Tiger was on the left and it was my shot to hit,” Garcia said.
“He moved all of the crowd that he needed to move. I waited for that. I wouldn’t say that he didn’t see that I was ready, but you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit and right as I was in the top of the backswing, I think he must have pulled like a 5-wood or a 3-wood and obviously everybody started screaming. So that didn’t help very much.”
Woods said that Garcia was wrong and the marshall’s told him that he had already hit, but he clearly wasn’t surprised by Garcia’s remarks.
“Not real surprising that he’s complaining about something,” Woods said.
There are loads of stories surrounding the feud between these Garcia and Woods. Woods didn’t take too kindly to Garcia pointing his putter back to his group after making birdie in 1999, and reportedly took a further disliking to Garcia after he celebrated wildly after winning an exhibition match against Woods in 2000.
Woods was clearly chuffed at beating a Garcia at the 2006 British Open where Garcia wore a right yellow outfit on the final day. Woods reportedly text friends “I just bludgeoned Tweety Bird” after his victory.
Woods has gone on to win eight of the 12 events he and Garcia have been paired together.