Golf boss 'so sorry' after adding to Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods race row
EUROPEAN golf boss George O’Grady was forced into an embarrassing apology after landing himself in the middle of the race row which has disfigured this year’s BMW PGA Championship.
O’Grady, in attempting to defend Sergio Garcia yesterday, upset anti-racist groups by using the term “coloured” to describe black athletes in a TV interview.
It was language which portrayed himself, his organisation and his sport as out of touch and prompted a rapid retreat.
“I deeply regret using an inappropriate word in a live interview for Sky Sports for which I unreservedly apologise,” said O’Grady. The European Tour chief executive allowed Garcia to escape censure for his “fried chicken” jibe at Tiger Woods this week.
It was O’Grady’s attempt to defend the Tour’s lack of action against the Spaniard that led to the foot-in-mouth moment at Wentworth yesterday.
“We were convinced he was trying to be funny; that it was a light-hearted remark that backfired,” said 63-year-old O’Grady.
“We know the connotation in the United States. We accept all races on the European Tour. We take it very seriously.
“Most of Sergio’s friends happen to be coloured athletes in the United States. He is absolutely abject in his apology and we accepted it.”
O’Grady’s gaffe echoed that of BBC football pundit Alan Hansen, who had to apologise in 2011 after using the word ‘coloured’ twice on Match of the Day, which led to 83 complaints.
“Black people prefer to be referred to as black because historically the term coloured has carried particularly negative connotations,” said Paul Kearns, deputy chief executive of Show Racism the Red Card.
“It is certainly something we would like to see disappear. It is old-fashioned and lazy, but more importantly it has an offensive undertone.
“I do think anyone using that term these days does so probably through ignorance or lack of education rather than through malice.
“But we’d actively discourage people from using the word coloured when they mean black.”