Tiger leaves Sergio to sweat some more

Tiger Woods may not be sure how the course will play or whether attack or defence is the best option in the 113th US Open. Just one thing is certain — he’s going to leave Sergio Garcia swinging in the wind a little while longer.

The Spaniard’s racially insensitive remarks at last month’s BMW PGA at Wentworth, where he joked that he’d serve Woods “fried chicken” every night if he was asked to take him home for dinner, simply won’t fade away.

Garcia has apologised publicly, phoned Woods’ manager to apologise again and even offered Woods a handshake at Merion on Monday. He’s also had to apologise to his sponsors.

Yet when asked if Garcia had actually apologised to him, face-to-face, Tiger did not let his man off the hook.

“No, we didn’t discuss anything,” Woods said when asked if they had managed to talk through the entire incident. “He just came up and said ‘Hi’, and that was it.”

Asked whether or not Garcia had said sorry in person, Woods replied tersely: “No. It’s already done. We’ve already gone through it all. It’s time for the US Open and we tee it up in two days.”

Garcia suggested Woods’ words meant the matter was closed: “With him taking the step forward and saying he considers it a closed deal, that’s good and we can move on and compete respectfully.”

The Philadelphia crowds are expected to give Garcia a hard time but he played down the presence of a police officer with his group this week, claiming he’s always had an escort in the US Open.

“It’s no different from any other year,” he said, adding, “the crowds have been great too so that makes me really proud.”

The issue is plainly not “done” but Woods has other things on his mind this week, such as ending his five-year drought in the majors. On paper, the 6,996-yard test at Merion sets up well for a player like Woods who can dissect a course with long irons from the tee, sharp wedge play, steady putting and a dominant long iron game on the tough holes.

Given the rain that has fallen on the course over the past few days, players are figuring out whether it’s going to be a low scoring US Open or not.

Will it be a question of trying to shoot two or three under par every day, at least, or is par still your friend in the US Open?

“That’s a great question,” Woods said. “I don’t think we have an exact feel for it yet, what we’re going to have to do and what we’re going to have to shoot. The conditions keep changing.

“We haven’t dealt with teeing it up in a tournament yet with it raining and drying out for a couple of days and the mud balls appearing. That’s going to be interesting. Especially the longer holes.

“The shorter holes, if you catch a ball that’s got a little bit of mud on it, you can’t be as precise.

“I don’t know how they’re going to get the fairways down or if they’re going to cut the rough at all or if they’re going to have the greens up to speed. They certainly weren’t up to speed yesterday.

“Today the putting green was still a little bit slow. I don’t think that it’s going to be that much faster, especially with the forecast with rain on Thursday.”

Woods certainly has an advantage over most of the field having playing the course in driving rain before the Memorial Tournament earlier this month.

“The ball wasn’t flying very far and I’m hitting the ball in the same spots now, because it’s rainy and soft,” he said. “I thought it might be totally different and that the ball would be running out and we would hit different clubs and different shapes. But it’s going to be the same as we played on Tuesday.”