Last weekend, a golf spectator yelled while Max Homa was hitting a birdie putt on the 17th green of the BMW Championship on Saturday at Olympia Fields Country Club. Homa later clarified that the fan was apparently hoping to affect the shot in order to win a bet.
On Tuesday, Jon Rahm said that this isn’t an uncommon occurrence, shocking many in the golf world.
“That happens way more often than you guys may hear,” Rahm told reporters Tuesday at a news conference for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. “I mean, it’s very, very present. In golf, spectators are very close, and even if they’re not directly talking to you, they’re close enough to where if they say to their buddy, ‘I bet you 10 bucks he’s going to miss it,’ you hear it.”
Rahm said that he thinks most golf fans are respectful.
“You’re hearing the positive,” Rahm said. “‘I got 20 bucks you make birdie here,’ things like that. But no, it’s more often than you think. It’s not caught on TV maybe, but it’s something that happens, yeah.”
Rahm admitted it would be hard for the PGA Tour to “somehow control 50,000 people scattered around the golf course.”
“You don’t want it to get out of hand, right?” Rahm said. “It’s very easy — very, very easy — in golf if you want to affect somebody. You’re so close, you can yell at the wrong time, and it’s very easy for that to happen.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan also discussed the incident, saying it was “unfortunate.”
“Our fans have great appreciation for the integrity of the competition,” Monahan said. “They’re respectful of our players. We have seen that continue to be the case and expect that to continue to be the case. We have tremendous fans that have tremendous respect for what these players need to do in order to provide and present the tremendous performances they do.”
[ESPN]
