Scott Hend came close to punching two drunk fans who heckled him as the Australian was plotting his way to the top of the BMW PGA Championship leaderboard, he said after his third round today.
Hend featured in the last two-ball of the day at Wentworth with home favourite, Masters champion and home favourite Danny Willett.
"Danny was getting all the crowd support and I had no problem with that but there were a couple of guys out there who were really over the top and it wasn't very nice what they were saying," Hend said.
"It was quite rude and personal and if it was up to me I would have had them thrown out.
"It's not Danny's fault but we are all out here playing golf and it's not fair being drunk and being smart arses as these two guys were," added the 43-year-old, winner of the European Tour's Thailand Classic in March.
"Danny and I are mates. I've played with him before and he wants me to do well and I want him to do well but when you get hecklers in the crowd saying pretty rude things as they were, I was ready to punch them."
Most of the heckling came towards the end of the round, said Hend after a closing eagle gave him a one-over 73 and a nine-under aggregate of 207, one ahead of England's Tyrrell Hatton.
"I didn't see any marshals around but when I mentioned to Danny I was going over to speak to them (the hecklers) he was just waiting for it all to kick off," Hend said.
"Danny was just waiting for me to punch one of the guys in the mouth. He had been hurling abuse at me before I hit my first putt at 14 and just wouldn't shut up from there on."
Leader Scott Hend was 'ready to punch' drunk hecklers at BMW PGA Championship
