SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Tiger Woods will have no special protection from heckling fans when he defends his title at the Australian Masters in Melbourne this week.
Australian media reported that anybody who heckled the former world number one over his well publicised extra-marital affairs would be ejected from the Victoria Golf Club after one warning.
“There is absolutely no specific policy directed towards Tiger Woods,” tournament director Marcus Gale told Reuters by telephone from the course yesterday.
“We expect all spectators to be courteous as they have always been here, a fact that Tiger commented upon last year.
“He won’t be treated any differently from any other player in this regard. We have the same policy for the 120th ranked player as for the top ranked player in this field.”
It was just after winning the Australian Masters last year that the first stories about Woods’s personal life broke, quickly developing into a storm that wrecked his marriage, tarnished his clean-cut image and caused him to take a break from golf.
Gale said there were no hard and fast rules over how to deal with hecklers at the Australian Masters.
“It would be silly to adopt a one warning and you’re out policy and not look at every issue on a case-by-case basis,” he added.
Organisers were not in any case anticipating problems from the 70,000-100,000 fans expected to flock to the course for the event, Gale said.
Woods will arrive in Australia today for the $1.5 million tournament, which starts on Thursday, after finishing sixth at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai last weekend.
