Sergio Garcia was not the only golfer heckled at The Players Championship

Sergio Garcia, as even casual golf fans probably know by now, experienced merciless heckling as he was trying to win The Players Championship last week.

“Obviously, some guys there that don’t deserve to be here watching golf, but that’s what it is,” Garcia said after being eliminated from the three-man playoff that Rickie Fowler eventually won on Sunday in Ponte Vedra.

The former El Nino has, over the years, earned a reputation as a whiner, regularly complaining when the ball does not bounce his way -- a characteristic he acknowledged shortly after blaming Tiger Woods for his own errant shot during the third round of the 2013 Players.

Garcia’s racially offensive remark aimed at Tiger Woods two years ago -- following that dust-up between the two at TPC Sawgrass — only further tainted his reputation and affected his on-course performance for months afterward.

We could go into chapter and verse about the love-him-or-hate-him emotions that Sergio stirs -- from the time the exciting 19-year-old scissor-kicked himself into the affections of golf fans worldwide at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah, to his infuriating gripping and re-gripping pre-shot routine, to the regrettable “fried chicken” comments.

For sure, we could chronicle Garcia’s growth from a petulant youth to a more mature and wiser professional. But though some may blame his past for Sunday’s harassment of Garcia, he was not the only golfer under verbal attack last week.

Ian Poulter, a brash Englishman who’s no stranger to controversy, especially on social media, got into a pointing match with spectators as he played the par-3 17th on Friday.

There was also the less-publicized haranguing of reigning FedExCup champion Billy Horschel. Sure, there was that run-in with the little, old lady and her itchy trigger finger, but that’s par for the course when the PGA Tour allows ignorant fans to roam around with cameras (welcome to Tiger’s world, BillyHo).

A volunteer, who served as a marshal Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Sawgrass, claimed to witness frequent “off the charts rude” conduct by those in the gallery on a green on the back nine. The eight-year volunteer (three at the home of The Players) said several caddies snapped back at remarks from the alcohol-fueled fans, including Horschel’s, who yelled “You don’t have to be such a jerk” at several Florida State yahoos disrupting his boss.

Horschel went to FSU’s in-state rival, the University of Florida. The Sawgrass volunteer, whose threat to call security dispersed the unruly onlookers, has decided to retire from the marshaling fraternity after last weekend’s events.

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

“It isn’t fun for anyone. Players, Caddies, volunteers or spectators,” the Sawgrass marshall said in an e-mail.

Is it the culture of the tournament that encourages such boorish behavior? Could be, considering the cruel bullying that Kevin Na experienced during the 2012 edition of the so-called “fifth major.” Three years ago, Na was brutalized for his excruciating slow play and fidgety inability to pull the trigger on several golf shots.

Garcia, who backed away and shook his head on the 17th tee, said he was heckled “three or four times on every hole since the 10th hole,” which raises questions about the efficacy of the tour’s security.

Garcia’s caddie, Glen Murray, told reporters he asked for security on the back nine after the verbal abuse intensified. Murray was not the only looper displeased by what Garcia experienced last week.

(The Players tournament director and a PGA Tour official did not respond to requests for comments about the heckling at Sawgrass.)

Such behavior, however, is not limited to TPC Sawgrass, as Na discovered in 2014 at Bay Hill. The abusive language aimed at Na was so offensive, his then-playing partner, Scott Stallings, refused to repeat it.

Some may point to the noisy, well-lubed hecklers who ring the renowned 16th green at TPC Scottsdale as part of the problem. From all accounts, though, the badgering at the Phoenix Open is amiable and openly encouraged by the golfers themselves.

Others may -- as another reader did -- call the chauvinistic “USA! USA!” chant “good-natured,” homer fun, but it’s obnoxious and over the top to others. Still others might suggest that golf would be more popular to mainstream spectators and TV viewers if there were more jeering and fewer “Quiet” signs raised as players hit their shots.

That may also be, but what Garcia, Poulter, Na and Horschel play is not football, baseball or basketball. It’s golf, a game in which -- for better or worse -- the flapping of butterfly wings in the adjoining meadow may get on the nerves of particularly finicky competitors.

“A heckling fan in golf is the equivalent of a fan in football reaching out with his leg to trip a player running up the sideline toward the end zone,” GolfChannel.com’s Randall Mell said Paul Azinger told him several years ago.

Garcia was unwilling to say he had been tripped up by a fan coming down the stretch, but do golf fans really want some crude booze hound dictating the outcome of a tournament?

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