Garcia Beats Himself In Tiger Feud

Q: How do you become the loser of a lose-lose situation?

A: Say something racist to a reporter.

Ball in water, meet foot in mouth.

He'll make you beat yourself on the course.  Sergio Garcia knows this well.  He intimidates.  And he intimidates Garcia.  Even during Tiger Woods' down period, he was far superior to Garcia.  Woods is often able to watch his opponents beat themselves while he stays the course.

That's on the golf course.  Off of the course, Woods historically struggles.  He is still the most popular golfer.  No question. But, he's also the least popular golfer with the amount of people that actively root against him.  I'm talking to you, Mom and Grandma Rose.

So it amuses me that Garcia beat himself in a mini-feud with Woods.  The whole thing was a bore, and it looked like there were no winners to be had.  Bombs like this passed through the media from Garcia, "He's not the nicest guy on tour."  Damn. Consider yourself served, Tiger.

Tiger picked himself off the mat and returned fire by calling Garcia a "complainer."  Ouch.  It just got real.

Turns out, it did, sort of, just get real.  Garcia found a way to lose a battle with no winners by making a fried chicken reference towards Woods to a reporter who asked Garcia if he would have Woods over for dinner.

Nice one, Sergio.

Woods was already the target of the same ignorant remark by Fuzzy Zoeller, and Zoeller was from the old guard where it's expected to some degree.

Today is different, and almost all of that can be attributed to Woods.  The old days of exclusion are melting away in a sport where tradition means everything.  Woods did that.  No.  He's not likable as a human.  Neither was Michael Jordan behind the curtain.  But Woods is unquestionably one of the top players to ever play the sport, and he is a minority.  He is Jordan meets Jackie Robinson.  You can't take that away from Woods.  No matter what he did, or how you feel about him, he is a pioneer.

As soon as Garcia went racist, he lost.  Beat himself.  I doubt Garcia is a bigot. More of a pampered idiot would be my guess. But, who the hell knows?  All we know is he went there with a mic in his face.  Now, he's a racist for life.  Some things cannot be unsaid.  The proof will be when sponsors start dropping him.

Woods truly doesn't like Garcia.  I doubt he was seriously hurt by the comment, but he certainly didn't try to bail out Garcia.  Nor should he.  His response to Garcia,

"The comments made weren't silly.  It was wrong, hurtful, and clearly inappropriate.  I'm confident that there was real regret that the comment was made. "

It was a stupid feud that was hardly worth mentioning before Garcia crossed the line.  Now it will cost him millions of dollars and his reputation.  Garcia will also likely struggle on the course because of the backlash.  A vacation is probably in order.

If this feud were a golf tournament it would the same Player's Championship that started the feud.  Tiger holds on to win as Sergio puts his foot in his mouth ball in the water.