Really? Find me some YouTube evidence or written accounts of crowds regularly reacting like this to Tiger pulling a club.

One further comment - with all of the concern about pace of play, I feel that it is contrary to the good of the game in general to censure a player for doing nothing more than taking the club he plans to use and starting to get ready for play. I don't care if it's Tiger or Phil or whoever, or what the stakes may be. This is sending the wrong message to the average player. He is now going to take this to the course and think that he is also not allowed to pick a club until it's his turn, rather than being praised for being proactive and getting ready to play the moment that the opportunity presents itself, with distance checked, club selected and details worked out.

@zipazoid You have to admit it was just more than pulling a club. It was the crowds reaction to the pulling of the club. Tiger has played in a lot of tournaments on the PGA Tour and knows what happens when he pulls a wood out of his bag on a par 5 when he is in a little trouble. It is not like Tiger is an average PGA Tour player, so he needs to be careful not to cause trouble for his playing partners.

It takes a serious convoluted twist of the facts to affix any kind of blame on Tiger for this incident. What exactly is he supposed to be guilty of? Pulling a damn club out of his bag well before his partner had hit his shot when he was led to believe the partner had hit?

Sergio is the villain of this situation because he blamed his poor shot on the noise from Tiger's gallery. If it were virtually every other pro, they would have shrugged & said 'Oh well...it happens sometimes.'

But not Sergio. He, of course, never does anything wrong, and when he does it's someone else's fault.

And even if it is, here's what it boils down to: Sergio is too much of a man-child, too passive aggressive, that he can't even mention it to Tiger during the round, instead choosing to whine and - yes - complain to the press. Tiger first seems to be aware of a possible etiquette issue was when he was asked about Sergio's comments by the press. Sergio may be young, but this hardly even ranks as high-school-level immaturity.

It's pretty difficult to apologize for something you didn't know you did. Reverse the players in the situation and I still blame the guy who doesn't even have the stones or or tries to play the game by not even telling the other player about the breach of etiquette.