Matt Fitzpatrick believes the growth of sports betting is negatively impacting crowd behaviour at leading golf tournaments.<\/p>\n
The Yorkshireman has regularly been heckled at events in the United States, notably at the Ryder Cup last year and the Players Championship in March.<\/p>\n
The partisan home support and the influence of alcohol have previously been the prime factors cited but Fitzpatrick has broadened the discussion, echoing recent comments by three-time major winner Jordan Spieth.<\/p>\n
Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, said: \u201cI\u2019ve had my fair share. I would say every golfer that\u2019s played a professional tournament has had a message of abuse from someone that is related to gambling.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s definitely becoming a problem. It would be very easy to influence a bet, whether it\u2019s you\u2019re shouting on someone\u2019s backswing, shouting on a putting stroke. It\u2019s really easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously that is really hard to monitor, but it is definitely an issue.\u201d Fitzpatrick insists he does not necessarily have a problem with noisy crowds, but there has to be a limit.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI want an atmosphere at a golf tournament. I\u2019ve said a million times, I love football, I love the atmosphere of a football match.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyder Cup, playing away from home, succeeding in those atmospheres \u2013 there\u2019s not a much better feeling. I\u2019m all for an atmosphere, but obviously I don\u2019t want it to cross a line.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fitzpatrick, who was speaking at a press conference at Royal Birkdale ahead of this week\u2019s Open, has largely withdrawn from social media because of abuse.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cYou go and type in a player\u2019s name who maybe isn\u2019t playing well or maybe someone who\u2019s favoured to play well, and you\u2019ll just see their name followed by abuse after abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say a lot of it comes down to the gambling. When you\u2019re getting personally attacked, it\u2019s just ridiculous.\u201d Hometown favourite Tommy Fleetwood is hopeful the crowd will be respectful this week.<\/p>\n
American winner Brian Harman was barracked the last time the Open was held on Merseyside at Royal Liverpool in 2023.<\/p>\n
World number nine Fleetwood said: \u201cI\u2019ve had support on my side 99 per cent of the time, but I\u2019ve also had it against me the odd time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, sometimes those have been my most enjoyable atmospheres, when the crowd are that little bit against you and it gives you that little bit extra.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure everybody will be great this week. I think the Opens I\u2019ve experienced in the north-west, the crowds have been amongst the best I\u2019ve ever seen and the atmospheres have been great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fitzpatrick and Fleetwood will be joined in the field at the 154th Open by Sheffield\u2019s Joe Dean, who shot a two-under-par 68 at Birkdale on Monday to win the inaugural \u201clast chance\u201d qualifier.<\/p>\n
Dean, who has previously had to supplement his golf earnings by working as a supermarket delivery driver, beat 11 other players to secure the 156th and final place. He will play alongside Max Homa and Henrik Stenson in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n
His next challenge is to find somewhere to stay for the rest of the week, with all nearby hotels booked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll sleep in the car if I have to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Fitzpatrick believes the growth of sports betting is negatively impacting crowd behaviour at leading golf tournaments. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-539730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}