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Swapping spit stories on Tour – Metro US

Swapping spit stories on Tour

After a Sunday of hacking in the heat of the Middle East, Tiger Woods’ hocking doesn’t surprise Sergio Garcia, himself known for using a golf course as a spittoon.

Woods made international headlines after video tape revealed him spitting on the course, a disrespectful act in a sport where propriety and manners are still very much part of the game. The video showed Woods launching a loogie as he lined up a putt during his final-round 75 at the Dubai Desert Classic. He later apologized via Twitter but was still fined an undisclosed amount by the European Tour.

“It’s unfortunate, I’ve been through it, I know how it feels,” Garcia said yesterday at a TaylorMade event at the Golfsmith on Lexington Avenue in New York City. “You wish he hadn’t done it but he did. He’ll be fine.”

It was of course nearly four years ago when Garcia spat into an open cup after finishing the 13th hole of the third round of the CA Championship, creating a backlash of negative publicity. Like Woods now, Garcia’s game then was in a slump and childish acts on the course sullied his once cover-boy image.

“It’s not great what he’s going through right now. I got my fair share of it back then when I did that. Now he’ll go through it too like I had too and make his amends,” said Garcia, who was paired with Woods on Sunday. “It’s too bad he did that.”

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Also at the Golfsmith event, which served as a fundraiser to support the “Game On!” program that provides injured military veterans with golf clubs, was last year’s PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer.

Unlike Garcia who was partnered with Woods at Dubai, the squeaky clean 26-year-old European star had just learned about the spit Monday morning.

“I think he regrets it, it is just too bad that it happened and that it has turned into this. It’s just unfortunate, really, that it happened at all,” Kaymer told Metro. “I think people need to forgive him, in general the public needs to move one. This game needs Tiger Woods and we should want him back playing.”