A Sponsor Relationship Ends for Zoeller Over Woods Remarks

Fuzzy Zoeller, who on Monday apologized for remarks about Tiger Woods, had his sponsor relationship with Kmart end on Tuesday after the company reviewed his comments.

Woods’ race often has been an issue in a game played predominantly by whites, and it was brought to the forefront again when Zoeller, on Masters Sunday, referred to him as “that little boy” and urged him not to put fried chicken “or collard greens or whatever they serve” on the menu of the champions dinner next year at Augusta National.

Zoeller’s remarks were broadcast Sunday on CNN’s “Pro Golf Weekly,” a week after Woods’ record-setting victory at the Masters.

Kmart spokeswoman Shawn Kahle said the company received a “significant volume” of telephone calls from throughout the country after Zoeller’s comments were reported in the media. She said most of the comments were critical of Zoeller, 45 and from New Albany, Ind.

Woods, meanwhile, has come up with a word that he believes best describes his background, a blend of Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian: “Cablinasian.”

Woods, described as the first black Masters champion, said it bothers him when people call him an African American.

“It does,” Woods said Monday during taping of the “Oprah Winfrey Show” in Chicago. “Growing up, I came up with this name: I’m a ‘Cablinasian.’ ”

Woods, 21, is one-fourth black, one-fourth Thai, one-fourth Chinese, one-eighth white and one-eighth American Indian.

When he was asked to fill out that form in school, he said he checked off African American and Asian because “those are the two I was raised under and the only two I know.”