After continually hearing a couple of fans verbally abuse him and his golfer, Adam Scott, during the 2nd round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines on Friday, caddie Tony Navarro unexpectedly charged under the ropes that keep fans off the course with his bag on his back and chest-butted one of the hecklers, Thomas J. Campbell, 37, knocking his cap off.
The two then wrestled on the ground, and Campbell threw an errant punch at Navarro. Phil Mickelson's caddie, Jim Mackay, also went through the ropes to help Navarro and could be heard yelling, "Where are the cops?"
The spectator Campbell and his father, Thomas W. Campbell, 62, were arrested and hauled to jail on charges of being drunk in public.
El Tigre addressed the incident with the media in his post-round press conference
“Well, they were being a little loud and a little rude,” Woods said. “Stuey (Stuart Appleby) is over there on 18 (the adjacent tee to the elevated ninth tee box) trying to tee off and Tony is trying to make sure that he doesn’t have these guys yelling on their swing. And they (the father-son heckling duo) didn't like that very much.”
A couple of things:
- ‘Being drunk in public’ is an arrest-able offense in SoCal?? Good thing it’s not in Chicago.
- You don’t quite expect a father-son son team to attack ancillary athletic event participants unless you’re at US Cellular Field.
(Both the head-butting and punch have subsequently been denied by all parties involved)
