As Wyndham Clark staggered to US Open victory at Shinnecock last month, the animosity was extraordinary. The TV broadcast picked up numerous “get in the bunker” shouts on virtually every shot. A cry of “Don’t choke, Wyndham” as he set up to hit his tee shot on the fourth hole led to one fan being swiftly removed.
Others were ejected for similarly abusive behaviour. There were cheers every time a putt didn’t drop, silence when one did, and jeers when an approach didn’t hit its target. “It’s pretty rare to have fans cheer for bad shots or boo against your shots. That was tough,” he said afterwards.
Clark was in an unusual situation – his popularity having taken a bigger dent than the dent the Oakmont lockers took during last year’s tournament – but it was just the latest wave in what seems to be a sea change in golf fan behavior.
It’s a situation that has led the R&A to introduce a formal code of conduct for spectators attending The Open. Explanations for this shift in behavior range from golf’s increasing popularity among a younger crowd to the partisan atmosphere of the Ryder Cup bleeding into other tournaments – but Jordan Spieth recently offered another, previously undiscussed, theory.
“Betting in golf is something that’s going to have to be tackled here soon,” he said. “I don’t know how much of the Wyndham [Clark] scenario was the fact that it was enticing to bet the field versus Wyndham on Sunday in a legalized betting state, and you could have had people out there who essentially had $100 to $10,000, depending on who it is, on the field versus somebody else.”
Spieth’s concern is that golf is uniquely vulnerable because spectators can directly affect play by shouting during a player’s swing. “In golf, it’s tricky because you could actually impact the outcome if you wanted to,” he said. “It may not last very long, but you could impact a shot if you wanted to. I don’t know of another sport you can impact as a fan as you can with golf.
“From what I’ve seen, a lot of times it has to do with betting, and that is in the last five years. We’ll see what happens with that.”
Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick has also been on the wrong end of the abuse in recent months – notably when he was fighting with Cameron Young for the Players Championship title, and then when he got the better of Scottie Scheffler at the RBC Heritage.
The Englishman, speaking ahead of the 2026 Open at Royal Birkdale, said he believes Spieth’s theory is well founded.
“For me, it’s definitely becoming a problem and the issue is, particularly in golf, it would be very easy to influence a bet, whether it’s you’re shouting on someone’s backswing, shouting on a putting stroke. It’s really easy. Obviously that is really hard to monitor, but it is definitely an issue.”
The 2022 US Open champion says the problem extends beyond on-course jeers to online abuse. “You just look at all the messages people get – footballers, tennis players, you name it – everyone’s getting messages of, oh, you missed that penalty; you cost me this. Oh, you didn’t make a birdie; it cost me this.
“I’ve had my fair share. I would say every golfer that’s played a professional tournament has had a message of abuse from someone who is related to gambling. I mean, you could see it this week. You go and type in a player’s name who maybe isn’t playing well – maybe someone who’s favored to play well – you type the name into Twitter, and you’ll just see their name followed by abuse after abuse after abuse.
“It’s difficult because I’ve had 20 quid on England to win the World Cup, but at the same time, if it doesn’t come in, I’m not going to send a message to Harry Kane and be like, why did you play rubbish? There’s obviously individuals who have that problem.
“I don’t know, obviously I don’t condone gambling in the slightest. It’s not really for me. It’s a thing that me and my mate do every World Cup and Euros, that’s it.” Matt Fitzpatrick says the abuse became bad enough that he no longer runs his own social media accounts.
“I don’t do any of my social media anymore,” he said. “I’ve stayed off of it just because I have my own private accounts elsewhere, but I don’t go looking for anything. I don’t think the social media companies do a good job of managing that stuff. That’s obviously a bigger conversation.
“As I said, you just search my name, Tommy [Fleetwood]’s name, anyone’s name, and you will find just tweet after tweet of just straight abuse. It’s not right. I’m not going into someone’s office or into their emails to abuse them. I would say a lot of it comes down to the gambling. You see that a lot on the social media, oh, this guy’s favored this week. Make sure you lump on him and duh, duh, duh. That’s obviously not conducive to a great atmosphere.
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