2 marshals back Tiger: Two other marshals have backed Tiger Woods amid a dispute with fellow golfer Sergio Garcia during the Players Championship last week.
Marshals Brian Nedrich and Lance Paczkowski told the Florida Times-Union that they were within 10 and 12 yards of Woods when he allegedly pulled a club from his bag, drawing applause as Garcia was swinging. Garcia contends that Woods, who won the tournament, disrupted this concentration.
“It is not true and definitely unfair to Tiger,” Nedrich told the newspaper. “That’s because I was the one Tiger heard say that Sergio had hit.”
Woods publicly said that he was told by a marshal that Garcia, who was obscured from Woods’ view, already hit before Woods selected a club.
“He said, ‘No ... I’m good,’” Paczkowski said of the incident, backing Woods. “We talk to players all the time, if we need to in regards to their needs and crowd control.”
On Tuesday, two other marshals, John North and Gary Anderson, told Sports Illustrated that they didn’t say anything to Woods, essentially disputing the world’s No. 1 golfer’s account of the incident.
“He didn’t ask us nothing and we didn’t say nothing,” Anderson told the publication regarding Woods. “We’re told not to talk to the players.”
“Nothing was said to us and we certainly said nothing to him,” North told the magazine. “I was disappointed to hear him make those remarks ... he was saying what was good for him. It lacked character.”
Garcia said originally that “I wouldn’t say that he didn’t see that I was ready, but you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit and right as I was in the top of the backswing, I think he must have pulled (a club) and obviously everybody started screaming,” according to NBC. “So that didn’t help very much.”
Woods said the mashals “told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot.”
