Sergio Garcia heckled with shouts of ‘Fried Chicken!’ at U.S. Open

It’s the weekend at Merion, and much of the Philadelphia crowd of more than 25,000 is out following one of the early marquee groups -- Rickie Fowler, Robert Karlsson, and Sergio Garcia. The crowd has heckled Sergio each day he’s been out on the East Course, but now that the weekend has arrived, it should get a little more rowdy.

And that rowdiness started early for Sergio, with an extremely loud “Fried Chicken!” yell as he set up to address his first tee shot of the day on No. 11

Roger Maltbie added that there were some more “not kind” words for Sergio when he played his second shot in to No. 11. Moments later, as his par putt on No. 14 was tracking towards the hole, there was a quite audible clucking noise emanating from the crowd that NBC’s broadcast picked up.

Given Philadelphia’s notorious reputation, and Sergio’s notorious reputation, the tumultuous week is not unexpected. Garcia had prepped for it, and even curmudgeon Johnny Miller had said Sergio “earned” the heckling. Now that the weekend crowds have arrived, the shouts should become more frequent for the Spaniard.

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