U.S. Open fans heckle Tiger Woods (Why now after all this time?)

News Day ^ | 6/20/2009 | JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER AND PATRICK WHITTLE

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Beer-sodden fans and rain combined for an ugly finish to a long day of golf yesterday, with Tiger Woods and other golfers subjected to drunken heckling as the action at Bethpage Black came to a close.

At 6:42 p.m., dozens of drunken spectators at Hole 10 taunted Woods as he prepared to start his third round in the rain.

"We're on Long Island, baby, where men are men!" one fan yelled. "Put that umbrella down!"

The taunts were mixed with cheers from the majority of the crowd. Woods did not respond to the people who were heckling him but tried to quiet the crowd with a "sshh" hand gesture, putting his finger to his lips, as golfers prepared to tee off on the adjacent 12th tee.

"Suck it up, you've got your own video game!" someone shouted at Woods.

Some fans, apparently disgusted by the hecklers' behavior, walked away from the hole. Others told the vocal contingent to quiet down, which had no effect on the verbal abuse.

[Talisker]

I readily acknowledge that a sport like baseball is vastly more difficult, competitive, dangerous, challenging and played under far more difficult circumstances for the athlete than a sport like golf.

Then you "readily acknowledge" it without my agreement.

But what does it matter? You've already clearly decided your position about golf. You're just going to have to accept that some of us enjoy watching wimpy non-athletic dilettantes like Tiger Woods playing a hyper-protected, trivial pseudo-sport.

[Moonman62]

Golfers, stand beside a teed stationary ball, hitting it with a large club head...need silence (from the few hundred, few thousand watching) to accomplish their task.

Wherein as a hitter in baseball, stands in a box, awaiting a thrown round ball, arriving from varied angles/speeds/ rotations, hitting it with a round bat, accomplished his task in a noisy, sometimes ear popping ridiculing/jeering/cheering, horns trumpeting, organ blaring atmosphere. Hmmmmm...

But in golf you have to play your foul balls.