Even today, racism is still fairly common in professional golf. One prime example of its existence deals with Tiger Woods and Fuzzy Zoeller during the 1997 Masters tournament. Zoeller made his comment after Woods won the event. Zoeller insists that he was not trying to sound racist, although the quote sounds very derogatory towards African Americans. One might recall the quote went exactly like this: "That little boy [Tiger Woods] is driving it well and he's putting well. He's doing everything it takes to win. So you know what you guys do when he gets back in here? You pat him on the back and say, 'Congratulations' and 'Enjoy it' and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it?", and walking away, he returned to add the infamous postscript: "or collard greens, or what every the hell they serve." (http://services.golfweb.com).  The first part which states how well Woods played is perfectly all right, but the "compliment" goes totally downhill after that. Zoeller claims that he did not mean for the comment to sound racist, but when one reads it, he/she can not help but see the many racist images intertwined in his language. "Serve", "fried chicken", "collard greens", "they serve" are very crude, crass words. Zoeller seems to have an image of Woods, as well as the rest of the African Americans in the US, as servants or slaves. He does not see African Americans as individuals, he only sees them as a group, as a "they". The foods he attributes to African Americans are derogatory as well; "collard greens", "fried chicken" or "whatever the hell they serve", seem to put African Americans in a sub-human rank. It's almost as if Zoeller thinks they are a whole different species. He does not see African Americans as people who like the same types of food as he, Fuzzy Zoeller, likes; he sees black people in a different light, he sees them as being less than him. Zoeller is not the usual stereotypical polite, refined golfer. He is a crude, racist man who made a very degrading statement towards not only one man but also towards a whole race, who only tried to cover up his statement to try to save his own image.