THE TIGER WOODS-Sergio Garcia feud began in August 2000 at a made-for-TV match-play event called the “Battle of Bighorn,” according to reports from Sports Illustrated and Golf Channel.
The event was part of a series called “Monday Night Golf.” It was a simple 18-hole match play event, with the winner getting $1.1 million (which was donated to charity).
The made-for-TV event came in the middle of Tiger’s epic run of dominance. He had won four of the previous five majors, and eight events total that year. Sergio had yet to win a PGA Tour event in his career at the time, so Bighorn was the biggest win of his life.
Tiger also won the WGC-Bridgestone in Ohio the night before by 11 strokes, and was tired and battling a cold. So given the context, you can understand Tiger’s frustration with Sergio going nuts. That incident started the ball rolling. And the feud picked up steam with a couple of incidents over the years:
In 2006, Sergio Garcia taunted Tiger before the Ryder Cup, saying, “Fortunately for us, [Woods] doesn’t have a great Ryder Cup record, so I’m looking forward to hopefully going out there and meeting him two or three times.”
And it all came to the forefront last weekend when Sergio blamed a bad shot on Tiger and explicitly said they don’t like each other. Apparently, it all comes from one incident 13 years ago:
Tiger Woods hates Sergio Garcia because 'he celebrated too much' at an event 13 years ago
THE TIGER WOODS-Sergio Garcia feud began in August 2000 at a made-for-TV match-play event called the “Battle of Bighorn,” according to reports from Sports Illustrated and Golf Channel.
The event was part of a series called “Monday Night Golf.” It was a simple 18-hole match play event, with the winner getting $1.1 million (which was donated to charity).
When the 20-year-old Garcia won the event 1-up, he unleashed a celebration that rubbed Tiger the wrong way. There isn’t video of the celebration on YouTube (which suggests it wasn’t that crazy), but Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated said Sergio “celebrated as if he had won the California lottery.” And John Hawks of the Golf Channel called it an “end zone dance” and said Sergio “blew his bugle with gusto.”
Here’s a photo from the night (more below):
The made-for-TV event came in the middle of Tiger’s epic run of dominance. He had won four of the previous five majors, and eight events total that year. Sergio had yet to win a PGA Tour event in his career at the time, so Bighorn was the biggest win of his life.
Tiger also won the WGC-Bridgestone in Ohio the night before by 11 strokes, and was tired and battling a cold. So given the context, you can understand Tiger’s frustration with Sergio going nuts. That incident started the ball rolling. And the feud picked up steam with a couple of incidents over the years:
In 2002, Sergio complained that play should have been stopped during a rain storm in the second round, saying they would have stopped it if Tiger was on the course.
In 2006, Sergio Garcia taunted Tiger before the Ryder Cup, saying, “Fortunately for us, [Woods] doesn’t have a great Ryder Cup record, so I’m looking forward to hopefully going out there and meeting him two or three times.”
And it all came to the forefront last weekend when Sergio blamed a bad shot on Tiger and explicitly said they don’t like each other. Apparently, it all comes from one incident 13 years ago:
A golf official says Tiger Woods lied about distracting Sergio Garcia during a shot
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Feud Golf Sergio Garcia Tiger Woods