Woods, Garcia have normal round despite previous issues

The two men had a handshake before teeing off. They did it again after the round.

If anyone was hoping for barbs-filled exchanges, the Sergio Garcia-Tiger Woods pairing wasn’t the place to find any.

The old feud (or disagreements) between Garcia and Woods didn’t turn into anything boisterous Saturday afternoon as the pair met at the first tee before a 1:15 p.m. third-round start. When they finished their rounds, which left Woods (68) at 6-under for the Masters Tournament and Garcia (71) at 3-under, they had another handshake to finish a round that included nothing unusual.

“I think we’re both fine and we showed it, and I knew it was going to be fine,” Garcia said. “You guys and some of the people think that it’s going to be chaos and it’s not like that. At the end of the day, it’s just a golf game.”

The two, who were both 2-under for the tournament going into Saturday’s round, have had their issues in the past.

In 2013, Garcia, when asked if he would invite Woods for dinner to help with any lingering problems, said, “We will have him around every night. We will serve fried chicken.” Garcia apologized for the remark, though Woods went on Twitter and called the comment “wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate.”

It was just one of a handful of situations involving the two.

Back in 1999, at the PGA Championship, Garcia appeared to shoot a look at Woods after Garcia drained a long birdie putt. Woods eventually won the tournament.

In 2000, Garcia enthusiastically celebrated a win against Woods in a televised competition. Two years later, Garcia, after playing through bad weather at the U.S. Open, said play would have been stopped had Woods been the one playing.

In 2013, at The Players Championship, Garcia was about to play his second shot at No. 5 when he was distracted by cheers – Woods picked a 5-wood for his next shot, indicating he was going to attempt a risky shot. Woods said he thought Garcia had already hit.

With patrons and fans looking forward to the third-round Masters pairing, Garcia took to Twitter to address the matter the night before.

“It was gonna happen at some point sooner or later! Paired with @TigerWoods tomorrow but don’t you worry guys, I’m sure we’ll both be fine.”

On Saturday, Garcia said the two men had normal chatting during the round, saying “good shot” or “good birdie” and similar thoughts.

“It was nice seeing Sergio,” Woods said. “Sergio had a hell of a shot from over the green (on 13). I saw how much it broke at the end, so I gave it about an inch and a half more break, after watching his putt come up there and poured it in there.”