On the heels of fans heckling both Zach Johnson and Sergio Garcia -- maybe it was the same guy -- on Saturday at the BMW Championship, we started to think of some of the worst hecklers in golf history. And we're not talking about the random guys that shout "Mashed potatoes!" or "Baba booey!" They're relatively harmless. These five are fans that went out of their way to be a jerk.
2004 WGC-Accenture Match Play: "No love!"
Who doesn't like Davis Love III? Apparently, a Tiger Woods fan in the final match of the '04 Match Play at La Costa. On the fifth tee, a fan shouted, "No love!" (or is it, "No, Love!" or "No! Love!"?) at the 2012 Ryder Cup captain. And the guy just wouldn't stop saying it.
Love III was the original Zach Johnson, confronting the crowd, not leaving until someone owned up to yelling at him.
2002 U.S. Open: "Let's go, Sergio!"
Sergio Garcia got from just about everyone on Long Island in the '02 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. It was bad -- both the heckling and Garcia's nervous regripping that prompted the heckling.
Even as he was being introduced in the final round, Garcia knew what was going to happen. He looked more nervous about that than the actual prospect of winning his first major.
2012 Tavistock Cup: David Feherty
The worst kind of heckler -- at least for the person being heckled -- is someone that knows you well. They know your secrets, your best and worst behavior and what can really tick you off.
David Feherty used that to his advantage to poke fun at friends as the emcee on the first tee of the Tavistock Cup for several years. Here are some highlights from 2012:
2012 U.S. Open: Jungle Bird
At least the 40-year-old Englishman known as Jungle Bird has a cause: stopping deforestation. He picked a bad time to make his debut, however, interrupting the trophy presentation at the 2012 U.S. Open. This video also earns the award for second-best-ever reaction to a heckler, with Mike Davis' takedown only second to Peter Jacobson tackling a streaker at the Open Championship.
2013 U.S. Open: "Waffle House!"
The worst kind of heckler is the one that knows you well. The second-worst? The one that knows nothing about you.
At the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, some guy shouts at Tiger Woods during a practice round: "Waffle House!" The fan is alluding, he thinks, to where Woods had a rendezvous affair with a waitress. The problem? The restaurant was (reportedly) Perkins, you idiot.
If you're going to heckle the best player in the world, know something about him.
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