Bartlett 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 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.
Isenhour has won four times on the Nationwide Tour, including twice in 2006. 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 shoot, 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.
"It was one of those cases where there's some trepidation on whether or not they should speak up and do something," Senger said.
Senger said the killing was not captured on video. The bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators.
"Americans have no tolerance for cruelty to animals. Such a petty, mean-spirited act against a wild bird is inexcusable and prosecutors are right to hold Isenhour accountable to the law," Humane Society executive vice president Michael Markarian said in a statement released Thursday.











