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Strange Wants Piece of Heckler

No one can accuse Curtis Strange from backing down. At the recently completed Boeing Classic outside of Seattle, the two-time U.S. Open champion was challenged by a 22-year-old fan to try to drive the green at the tempting par-4 14th hole in the first round at the TPC of Snoqualmie Ridge.

"Go for it, Curtis," hollered Drew Stokesbary of Olympia from the Canyon Club, a hospitality box near the tee. "Be a man."

The 52-year-old Strange eyed the hole, which features a downhill tee shot over a deep, overgrown chasm called "Bear's Canyon," named after Jack Nicklaus, the course designer. Many of the Champions Tour players opted to aim a shorter distance to the right with a mid- or long iron, choosing the safe route and a short wedge into the promontory-perched green for a possible birdie.

"Go for it, Curtis," Stokesbary yelled again loudly. "Hit it like a man." Instead of following the young man's entreaties, Strange chose the conservative route and put his ball safely in the fairway. Another verbal assault followed Strange's drive.

"That's what the ladies' tour is for, Curtis," Stokesbary barked as Strange and his group passed before the grandstands. Strange halted in his tracks, turned to the heckler and came unglued. "Come on down here, bud," he yelled back. "I'll show you what kind of man I am."

"I need a pass to get inside the ropes," Stokesbary answered. "Come on down, right now," Strange reacted before letting the issue go and continuing his walk around the canyon.

Turns out that Stokesbary, accompanied by 43-year-old Tom Kwieciak, who received free tickets to the tournament through a radio call-in giveaway, planned to harass some players about going the safer route on the 14th. According to Seattle P.I. reporter, Dan Raley, Stokesbary talked on-air with KJR-AM's Mitch Levy, who suggested that Strange had a hair-trigger temper and encouraged the two men to test the golfer's limits. They took Levy to heart.

"I heard on the radio that he's considered a hothead, which is why I singled him out, and he proved it," Stokesbary said in reference to Strange.

"He had no (backbone) to come down," Strange told Raley after the round. "He hid behind somebody up there and that was it. It was a sad commentary on spectators in general. What gets me is why don't other fans just smack him?"

Two security guards later approached Stokesbary and Kwieciak and asked them not to harass other players. But the two weren't ejected.

Alcohol wasn't an issue in this case of fan misbehavior. Stokesbary had left his ID at home, couldn't order a drink and was sober. Raley learned later that there was an Atlantic Coast Conference rivalry that played out on the 14th. Strange attended Wake Forest and Stokesbary is a recent graduate of Duke, a school with a history for creating havoc at sporting events.

As a junior, Stokesbary was the Blue Devils mascot and got into trouble in that role with a referee during a Duke-Virginia Tech basketball game at Cameron Indoor arena. During a break in the action during that game, Stokesbary mimicked an earlier traveling call and was spun around by the official. He was warned that Duke would receive a technical foul if he perpetrated any more such shenanigans.

Stokesbary was hardly contrite about upsetting Strange, who shot a 4-over-par 77 that day despite a birdie on the 14th hole. "I'm surprised, because golfers are supposed to be level-headed and cool," he said.

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