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No apology from Garcia, says Woods

Tiger Woods was in a jovial mood as he addressed the media at Merion © AP

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Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia have not sat down and cleared the air, despite the pair shaking hands on the range at the US Open on Monday.

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Woods, speaking at his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, denied speculation that he and Garcia had met on Monday evening to resolve their differences following a well-publicised spat, one that escalated after Garcia used a "fried chicken" remark that many believed to have racist undertones.

Woods said Garcia had not apologised to him in person, despite coming over to his spot on the range on Monday, and said that a prolonged sit-down would not happen this week - as the world No. 1 devotes his attention to preparing for the year's second major championship.

"No, we didn't discuss anything," Woods said. "[He] just came up and said hi, and that was it."

When asked if Sergio had apologised to him face-to-face, he added: "No. It's already done. We've already gone through it all. It's time for the US Open and we tee it up in two days."

The weekend marks five years since Woods' last major championship victory and the world No. 1 is focused on getting back to winning ways in the big four, admitting that he hopes to "kick everyone's butt" this week.

"I just enter events to win, and that's it, whether there's a lot of people following or there's nobody out there," he said. "It's still the same. It's still about winning the event.

"That's why I played as a junior, all the way through to now, is just to try to kick everyone's butt. That to me is the rush. That's the fun. That's the thrill."

He added: "Anyone who wins this week will certainly be a part of history. It would be nice. We've got a long way to go, we're two days away from the start. We've got some work to do."

The American is also excited about his pairing for the opening two rounds at Merion, which will see him play alongside Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott, the two players directly behind him in the world rankings.

"I think it will be fantastic," he said. "I was part of that the first time they did it in 2008 [at Torrey Pines] and it was very electric out there. I know they've done it a few more times. It's not very often we get [world No.] one, two and three in one group and four, five and six in another.

"Normally we don't get those types of pairings very often. When you do it just makes it that much more enjoyable for us as players."

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