FORT WORTH, TEXAS, May 22: Tiger Woods and Fuzzy Zoeller held their long-awaited, face-to-face meeting at Colonial Country Club yesterday and both golfers said they hoped they could at last put the Masters incident behind them.

Zoeller drew a firestorm of criticism for his remarks at the conclusion of last month's Masters about what record-setting winner Woods might decide to have served at next year's champions dinner.

Zoeller had already publicly apologised for his clumsy stab at humour, but yesterday's 20-minute lunch in the players dining room was their first face-to-face meeting, one that Woods had said he was looking forward to.

``We had a nice lunch and a nice conversation. I let him know how I feel and heard what he was thinking and now it's behind us,'' Woods said. ``Now I understand the entire situation and hope we can both have a good week this week.''

Zoeller who had described his life as ``total hell'', since the incident, did not appear at yesterday's news conference, but said he was glad to have the meeting behind him.

``Everything went good and positive. We're looking straight ahead and moving on from here,'' he said. ``I just hope something positive comes from this.''Zoeller said he had briefly considered retiring, but decided to come to Fort Worth and face Woods before this week's $ 1.6 million Colonial PGA tournament.

Colonial officials had suggested a possible practice round between the two men, but Woods declined, going off late yesterday afternoon for his first look at the course, which has hosted a PGA tournament since 1946.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.