MIAMI (Ticker) - English golfer Paul Casey had been waiting all year for a serious dose of heckling, and it finally arrived during the third round at the Ford Championship in Saturday. Casey and his fellow competitor Scott Hend had to wait for about 10 minutes on the 13th tee while security was summoned to eject the spectator from the Doral Resort's Blue Monster.

"It was really unfair and distracting for Scott," said Casey, who sensibly ignored the heckler, and seemed more concerned for his fellow competitor than himself. "People think they're going to get at me but all that happens is they aggravate the other player."

The heckler no doubt was motivated by controversial comments Casey made last November to the Sunday Times of London. In the interview, he said he learned to "properly hate" the Americans during last year's Ryder Cup, that U.S. fans could be "bloody annoying" and that the vast majority of Americans didn't know what was going on in the world. Even though Casey, 27, subsequently tried to explain the context in which his comments were made, and that the word "hate" was meant in a competitive sense only, he knew he would be heckled sooner or later.

Saturday's incident was by far the worst, he admitted, in four PGA Tour appearances this year. "The guy was an absolute idiot," Hend said. "On the first tee he was yelling out something and then he disappeared. I guess he had a few more drinks and suddenly he popped up on the farthest part of the course. "He yelled, 'Shank it in the trees. You won't catch Phil [Mickelson]. He's American, you're not.' He was just being outrageously bad. We couldn't go anywhere because we didn't know what the guy was going to do when Paul tee off. Paul handled it very well. He just ignored the guy. I feel sorry for him, because he's a great guy and a great player."

Casey said he would like to talk to the heckler.

"I really feel people don't understand what was said or who I am, and that's the hardest part," he said. "It's one guy out of a great crowd this week. Everyone else has been fantastic." Casey, who has been undergoing professional help to deal with the controversy and its aftermath, said police had finally arrived and removed the heckler, but the delay didn't sit well with Hend, who was in second place at the time. "I lost my rhythm and from then on I couldn't get any rhythm on the way in," he said after double-bogeying the 14th hole on his way to a 69 that left him tied for 14th with, among others, Casey.

They were paired again for Sunday's final round, something Hend was probably less than thrilled about.

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