PLAYER HECKLED

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 46

PLAYER HECKLED

(N.Z. Press Assn.— Copyright? ARDMORE (Pennsylvania).

Two black spectators heckled the South African, G. Player, over his country’s racial policies on the sixteenth and seventeenth holes in the first round of the United States Open golf championship.

The hecklers were escorted away from Player and his two partners, R. Goalby and A. Wall. There was no immediate indication any arrests were made.

■ At the sixteenth tee, the i two men pushed near the f front of the crowd and started yelling: “What about ■ Arthur Ashe? Why won’t i South Africa let Ashe play ' tennis there?” (Ashe has i been denied a visa.) I One of the hecklers was more vocal than the other. , At the seventeenth tee, he i renewed his remarks about South Africa’s apartheid i policies. ■ Player, appearing to remain i calm, faced the heckler and i —in a quiet voice—sought tq ; make an explanation. “He wouldn’t let me talk

—he Just kept ranting at me,” Player said later.

Wall, 47-year-old former Masters champion, stepped i between Player and bis , heckler and said: "Why don’t you leave this man alone. He ’ is one of the finest gentlei men on the ,golf tour.” I Goalby appeared shaken by i the incident. 1 Player, who has won every , major professional golf championship, finished with a 76. He appeared upset by I the incident, but refused to , discuss it. i “I don’t like to see politics interfere With sports,” he ■ told reporters. “Why don’t ■ you fellows write about the leaders and the good things , in the tournament.”. This was not Player’s first i experience with demon- ; strators protesting over ■ apartheid. • In 1969, at the P.G.A. i championship, at Akron, Ohio, a demonstrator tossed i a cup of ice in the South . African’s face as he went i from, the ninth to the tenth : tees'. ■■■ ■ ■ I : There have been reports of telephoned threats on his life i—not confirmed by Player— I ahd 'police guards werepro[Wded in tounattents last year, But the security was : not resumed thi?'y»«v-