\t\t\t\tWyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick and, of course, Team Europe have all felt the wrath of American golf fans in recent months. Jordan Spieth believes it goes way deeper than you might think\u2026<\/p>\n
For the first time in a long time, the biggest talking point at the US Open wasn\u2019t the course setup or, indeed, the champion. It was the behavior of the crowd.<\/p>\n
For the second time in less than a year, the New York galleries were in full voice in a bid to unsettle their preferred loser. While the vitriol toward the European team at the Ryder Cup in September was unpalatable, at least it made sense. But a few miles further along Long Island last month, the mobs were actively rooting against one of their own<\/a> in Wyndham Clark \u2013 with cries of \u201cget in the bunker\u201d echoing around Shinnecock Hills on that tense Sunday showdown.<\/p>\n Speaking ahead of the John Deere Classic<\/a> \u2013 a tournament he has won twice, including his maiden PGA Tour title in 2013 \u2013 Jordan Spieth was asked if we need more nice people at golf tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you could figure that out, I think we\u2019d rather have it running each country around the world versus worried about golf tournaments,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n But the three-time major champion, who will return to Royal Birkdale later this month for the first time since winning The Open<\/a> on the Merseyside links in 2017, does have a theory about the trouble. \u00a0<\/p>\n After describing the behavior at Shinnecock as \u201cunique circumstances\u201d, Spieth added: \u201cBetting in golf is something that\u2019s going to have to be tackled here soon.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t 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 that essentially have $100 to $10,000, depending on who it is, on the field versus somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem, Spieth explained, is that fans can influence the a single golf shot by, say, shouting during a player\u2019s backswing.<\/p>\n \u201cIn golf it\u2019s tricky because you could actually impact the outcome if you wanted to,\u201d he added. \u201cIt may not last very long, but you could impact a shot if you wanted to. I don\u2019t know of another sport that you could impact as a fan like you can golf.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t know how much that\u2019s having to do with it, if it\u2019s different than it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick has also been on the wrong end of the abuse in recent months \u2013 notably when he was fighting with Cameron Young for the Players Championship<\/a> title, and then when he got the better of Scottie Scheffler at the RBC Heritage<\/a>.<\/p>\n But, Spieth concluded, the abuse isn\u2019t \u201ca crazy new thing\u201d \u2013 more the reasons behind it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played rounds with guys who were not treated well 10, 15 years ago. I do think the Bethpage Ryder Cup was, from what I understand, a lingering effect from that with America versus Europea. Cam Young, Fitzpatrick, The Players. I\u2019m trying to single them out for you, but I wasn\u2019t a part of either one of them. I will say that, from what I\u2019ve seen, a lot of times it has to do with betting, and that is in the last five years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick and, of course, Team Europe have all felt the wrath of American golf fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-667981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}