Dead birdie lands golf star in the dock

ORLANDO, Florida -- American professional Tripp Isenhour is in hot water after killing a hawk during filming for a television show.

Isenhour, who has won four times on the second-tier Nationwide Tour, started hitting golf balls at a squawking red-shouldered hawk who was disrupting the shoot by making a noise.

The 39-year-old drove his golf cart to get nearer to the bird and then allegedly said, "I'll get him now."

A few shots later, witnesses said that he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils and was buried by the video crew at the golf course in Florida.

But federal investigators got to learn of his actions and Isenhour was charged on Wednesday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird, misdemeanors which carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and a $1,500 fine.

Isenhour has apologized saying he was "mortified and extremely upset" but animal rights campaigners want the PGA Tour to take further action against him.

"Because of the high profile nature of this case, the PGA needs to take steps to address its interest and to make it clear that they don't condone animal cruelty," said Dale Bartlett, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

Bartlett said the organization would contact the PGA Tour on Friday to discuss their position.

He said Isenhour's case, like the Michael Vick dog fighting case, is disappointing for society.

"We look up to professional athletes and we want them to reflect the best of us as a society and I think we're appalled when it turns out they instead reflect some of the very worst attributes," he said in a phone interview with Associated Press on Thursday night.

Isenhour said he is an animal lover and his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.

"We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family's privacy," he said.

The former Georgia Tech star has played three events this year on the tour the last a 36th-place tie two weeks ago in the Moonah Classic in Australia.

Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the December shoot, who reported Isenhour to the authorities, said hitting the bird was "basically like a joke to Isenhour)."

"He just kept saying how he didn't think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say," Senger said.

"He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that's, I don't know, a couple hundred feet away?"

Senger said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it. E-mail to a friend

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