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DiMarco no stranger to rowdy fans
Palm Beach, Mar 10: Chris DiMarco has a lot of things on his mind as he approaches this week`s Honda Classic, such as winning another PGA Tour title and making the Ryder Cup.
Palm Beach, Mar 10: Chris DiMarco has a lot of things on his mind as he approaches this week's Honda Classic, such as winning another PGA Tour title and making the Ryder Cup.
But one topic that has cropped up often in the past week or so is the incident between Davis Love III and a rowdy fan at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
Love, if you remember, finally had a spectator ejected after the guy had been yelling at him for much of his match against Tiger Woods. That has happened to Love before, most recently at the 2002 Western Open. And DiMarco has not been shy about having an ill-mannered fan bounced.
Two years ago when he won the Phoenix Open, a fan heckled him at the 16th green and DiMarco summoned security to have the fellow removed. The 16th at the TPC of Scottsdale has one of the loudest galleries on Tour.
"They're just inebriated out there," DiMarco said earlier this year after the final round when he couldn't quite pull off his bid to repeat as the champion. "I heard about 10 or 12 'Noonans' that I heard from years past, and it's fine.
"I'll just say this: I'd love to go get a six-pack of beer, find out where these guys work, go in their office, sit on my chair and go yell at them while they're making sales calls. It's a little disappointing that they don't show more respect, but it goes with the hole. That's the way it works. You would have thought since I won here, and being a past champion, maybe they'd show a little more respect, but it just goes to show what alcohol does for you."
The incident with Love has drawn the attention of nearly everyone in the game, from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem on down. DiMarco talked about the issue last weekend at the Ford Championship.
"He was not there just to root for Tiger, he was there to try to get under Davis' skin," DiMarco said of the fan. "Once, twice, three times you can let it go. But after a while, as a competitor and a person, you feel you should say something to should be like that.
"Again, he was the only one that everybody heard. It wasn't just Davis who heard him. Everybody heard him."
DiMarco said he was not complaining about the majority of people who make up the galleries at Tour events.
"I said it earlier, 99.9 percent of our fans are the best in the world, but every tournament, you're going to have 15 to 20 inebriated people who want to get boisterous and loud. And then if we say something, we seem like we're saying it about all of the fans where it's not all of the fans.
"We are not a basketball game, we are not a football game. There is a certain amount of respect that I feel, especially Davis, the guy has won how many tournaments, majors. Obviously he's a great family guy and he does a tremendous amount for charity. He doesn't deserve that out there. He deserves a little more respect than that, I think."
Bureau Report
But one topic that has cropped up often in the past week or so is the incident between Davis Love III and a rowdy fan at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
Love, if you remember, finally had a spectator ejected after the guy had been yelling at him for much of his match against Tiger Woods. That has happened to Love before, most recently at the 2002 Western Open. And DiMarco has not been shy about having an ill-mannered fan bounced.
Two years ago when he won the Phoenix Open, a fan heckled him at the 16th green and DiMarco summoned security to have the fellow removed. The 16th at the TPC of Scottsdale has one of the loudest galleries on Tour.
"They're just inebriated out there," DiMarco said earlier this year after the final round when he couldn't quite pull off his bid to repeat as the champion. "I heard about 10 or 12 'Noonans' that I heard from years past, and it's fine.
"I'll just say this: I'd love to go get a six-pack of beer, find out where these guys work, go in their office, sit on my chair and go yell at them while they're making sales calls. It's a little disappointing that they don't show more respect, but it goes with the hole. That's the way it works. You would have thought since I won here, and being a past champion, maybe they'd show a little more respect, but it just goes to show what alcohol does for you."
The incident with Love has drawn the attention of nearly everyone in the game, from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem on down. DiMarco talked about the issue last weekend at the Ford Championship.
"He was not there just to root for Tiger, he was there to try to get under Davis' skin," DiMarco said of the fan. "Once, twice, three times you can let it go. But after a while, as a competitor and a person, you feel you should say something to should be like that.
"Again, he was the only one that everybody heard. It wasn't just Davis who heard him. Everybody heard him."
DiMarco said he was not complaining about the majority of people who make up the galleries at Tour events.
"I said it earlier, 99.9 percent of our fans are the best in the world, but every tournament, you're going to have 15 to 20 inebriated people who want to get boisterous and loud. And then if we say something, we seem like we're saying it about all of the fans where it's not all of the fans.
"We are not a basketball game, we are not a football game. There is a certain amount of respect that I feel, especially Davis, the guy has won how many tournaments, majors. Obviously he's a great family guy and he does a tremendous amount for charity. He doesn't deserve that out there. He deserves a little more respect than that, I think."
Bureau Report