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Racism row

Donald: Sergio ‘full of regret’ over Tiger fried chicken comment

Let’s get back to the golf, then?

LUKE DONALD HOPES the world of golf can move on following the racism storm involving Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods.

Garcia hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons on Tuesday when he made a comment that could be construed as having racial connotations at an event ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Speaking in the aftermath of his dispute with the world number one at the Players Championship two weeks ago, the Spaniard responded to a light-hearted question about whether he will invite Woods to dinner at the US Open next month by saying: “We’ll have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken.”

The 33-year-old apologised unreservedly for his comments on Wednesday, insisting that he “feels sick about it” and was “truly sorry” for his ill-judged quip.

In turn, Woods took to his Twitter profile to express his desire to “move on and talk about golf” and world number six Donald – a close personal friend of Garcia – has echoed these sentiments.

“I saw Sergio this morning and he was certainly full of regret. It obviously came out and I don’t think he meant it in that way. It’s something that came out. We all know Sergio, he says his mind and sometimes he doesn’t have that filter unfortunately,” said the Englishman.

“It was an unfortunate incident, he’s full of regret, I believe he’s apologised and made a statement, and hopefully we can move forward from this.”

On the course, Donald is aiming to become the first man since Colin Montgomerie to win three consecutive PGA Championship titles. And, though he insisted that fact will not affect his desire to win, he conceded it will be in the back of his mind.

“I’ll just go in there obviously with a little bit more expectation and a little bit more excitement about being here because of previous results. But again the idea is just to try and get into contention and give myself an opportunity to win,” the 35-year-old stated.

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