Sergio Garcia’s ‘fried chicken’ remark on Tiger Woods harms golf

Accordingly, leading lights like Garcia are no strangers to having microphones thrust in their faces. They regularly appear at corporate gigs like the one at which the Spaniard made his ill-judged joke.

As Garcia acknowledges, there are no excuses for what he said. His main sponsors have expressed their disapproval by stating that the fried chicken comment was “offensive and in no way aligns with TaylorMade-adidas Golf’s values and corporate culture”.

Garcia is thought to earn $5m a year from the California-based firm, which is continuing to review the controversy. The player has always been regarded as one of the company’s best ambassadors and is hugely popular at corporate events. This reputation may save his contract, but only just.

The company’s response looks like amounting to a final warning and were the Spaniard to transgress again he would be looking elsewhere for clubs and apparel. Big business is at the heart of golf and image is all important.

So too is the way the game is regarded by the world at large. Despite years of progress, golf still retains that elitist image and has shameful moments of racism in its history.

It was only in 1975 that Clifford Roberts, the then chairman of the Augusta National, said: “As long as I’m alive, golfers will be white and caddies will be black.”

When Woods won his first green jacket in 1997 Fuzzy Zoeller made the original “fried chicken” comment when asked what he thought the winner would serve up at the following year’s champions’ dinner.