Tour chief puts foot in it trying to calm racism row

The Sergio Garcia racism row took a bizarre twist yesterday with European Tour chief executive George O’Grady having to apologise following a racist reference when discussing the Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods controversy.

A day earlier, both O’Grady and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem accepted Garcia’s unreserved apology following the Spaniard’s “fried chicken” comment during last Tuesday night’s gala European Tour Players Award dinner.

However, during the first round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, O’Grady soon found himself having to also issue an unreserved apology after rekindling the controversy between Garcia and Woods in referring to black Americans as “coloured athletes”.