Hazard for Golfers: Fans

The issue of player safety, tougher to control than spinning a ball onto the green from out of the rough and a great deal more troublesome, has left spike marks on professional golf and raised the most difficult question in sports.

Are players in danger?

The answer is, yes . . . just as are other public figures.

When a golf fan in Tiger Woods’ gallery became belligerent to a plainclothes officer Sunday at the Phoenix Open, was wrestled to the ground and was then found to have a loaded semiautomatic handgun in his fanny pack, golf’s worst fear became a national news story.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, according to the operations manager of a private security firm that has worked with Woods.

“What happened wasn’t any more of a problem than it is with any other public figure,” said Brenda Munns of Strike Force Protection Service, a Van Nuys firm that once provided bodyguards for Woods at a golf event at Coto de Caza.

Golfers would seem to be at high risk because of the proximity of the fans, who are separated from play only by nylon ropes.

“Anyone who gives a speech or makes a public appearance or any sort of public figure may be at risk,” she said.

Munns said golfers are most vulnerable when they are swinging a club.

“You can’t protect them there,” she said. “Bodyguarding is an inexact thing. All you can do is pay attention to the audience. What you look for are different motions, different movements, hands in the pockets, body-language things. People who look like they don’t belong.

“But there is no guarantee of anything in life, unfortunately,” Munns said.

In the incident at the Phoenix Open, a fan identified as Brian K. Murphy of Phoenix was arrested and charged with felony suspicion of aggravated assault and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

The Associated Press reported that Murphy was heckling Woods, but that is in dispute. A spokesman for the PGA Tour said Monday that Murphy was following Woods, who was playing with Rocco Mediate and Harrison Frazar, and yelling “Tiger, Tiger, Tiger” as a fan.

The man was told to quiet down by the police officer and the incident escalated.

The Associated Press reported Monday that investigators don’t believe Murphy intended to threaten Woods or other PGA stars.

“I think he just let poor sense get the best of him,” Scottsdale police Sgt. Doug Dirren told the Associated Press.

Murphy had a permit to carry a concealed weapon and was released from police custody on his own recognizance.

Woods, who was unaware the spectator was armed until after his third-place finish at Phoenix, now moves on the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where crowds are expected to be large and the security stringent.

“We have extremely tight security because of the high-profile people we have here at our event,” said Cathy Scherzer, marketing director of the Pebble Beach tournament. “Not just athletes, but entertainers and CEOs. We have multiple levels of security, including working with the PGA Tour and its security team, plus over 300 marshals.”

After Pebble Beach, Woods’ tentative schedule includes three consecutive weeks of tournament play--in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club and the Anderson Consulting Match Play Championship at La Costa. What have evolved into normal player security measures will be in use at those tournaments.

“It might come to the point where it might be like a high school, where you have to have metal detectors in order to go in,” Woods said. “Especially when you have this many people doing the things they’re doing out there.”

Security measures as they pertain to Woods were already significantly beefed up in 1998, to contend with the increased number of fans on the course as a result of Woods’ popularity, beginning at the first full-field event of the year, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. They were then adopted tour-wide and quickly became known as “the Tiger rules.”

The PGA Tour instructed local tournaments to hire more plainclothes police officers and more private security people, to rope off areas for players as they moved from greens to the next tees, and to restrict access to the tee areas.

Security personnel at all tour events include state and local police, private security and the tour’s own security force.

“We don’t like to publicly state the exact program, for obvious reasons,” said Dave Lancer of the PGA Tour.

“But it does involve plainclothes and uniformed police.”

The tour tailors its security measures to fit each tournament, taking into account crowd size, the layout of the course and the available support from local communities.

But there are certain limits on how effective security may be, Lancer said.

“Obviously, over a course of 200 acres, you can’t cover everything,” he said.

The Phoenix Open, where ticket sales for the week number close to 450,000, presents its own special problems for security. Staged at the TPC of Scottsdale, the tournament is known on tour for its party atmosphere. Nowhere is that more prevalent than at the par-three 16th hole, where crowds of as many as 40,000, many of the fans holding drinks, cheer each shot in a chaotic symphony of noise.

It’s quite a scene. And after Sunday’s incident, it’s also quite unsettling to at least some of the players. John Daly said he was affected by the arrest of the armed spectator near Woods, although that occurred on the sixth hole.

“It’s very, very scary,” Daly said. “Some people think we are babies about what is going on at No. 16. Well, it’s because we are scared.”

Daly, a recovering alcoholic, blamed drinking for the incident.

“I’ve done some crazy things when I was drunk,” he said. “It’s because of alcohol. People do stupid things when they’re drunk and that’s why it’s so scary. All it should take is one incident to make them a little more protective of our security.”

Payne Stewart said the galleries at PGA Tour events probably aren’t much different from crowds at other sporting events.

“There are definitely some crazy people out there,” Stewart said.

“It’s sad, but that’s the way it is.”