{"id":689641,"date":"2026-07-13T17:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689641\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:20:11","slug":"matt-fitzpatrick-says-golf-fan-abuse-is-becoming-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689641\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Fitzpatrick says golf fan abuse is “becoming a problem”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tMatt Fitzpatrick believes gambling is contributing to worsening crowd behavior in golf, backing Jordan Spieth\u2019s claim that betting is creating new problems for players on and off the course.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s widely accepted that golf crowd behavior is getting worse.<\/p>\n

As Wyndham Clark staggered to US Open victory at Shinnecock last month, the animosity was extraordinary<\/a>. The TV broadcast picked up numerous \u201cget in the bunker\u201d shouts on virtually every shot. A cry of \u201cDon\u2019t choke Wyndham\u201d as he set up to hit his tee shot on the fourth hole got one fan swiftly removed. Others were ejected for similarly abusive behavour. There were cheers every time a putt didn\u2019t drop, silence if one did, and jeers if an approach didn\u2019t hit its requisite target.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty rare to have fans cheer for bad shots or boo against your shots. That was tough,\u201d he said afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"Wyndham<\/p>\n

Clark was in an unusual situation \u2013 his popularity having taken a bigger dent than the Oakmont lockers he kicked in during last year\u2019s tournament \u2013 but it was just the latest wave in what seems to be a sea change in golf fan behavior.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a situation that has led the R&A to introduce a formal code of conduct for spectators<\/a> attending The Open.<\/p>\n

Explanations for this shift in behavior range from golf\u2019s increasing popularity among a younger crowd to the partizan atmosphere of the Ryder Cup bleeding into other tournaments \u2013 but Jordan Spieth recently offered another, previously undiscussed, theory<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBetting in golf is something that\u2019s going to have to be tackled here soon,\u201d he said.<\/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

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

Spieth\u2019s concern is that golf is uniquely vulnerable because spectators can directly affect play by shouting during a player\u2019s swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn golf it\u2019s tricky because you could actually impact the outcome if you wanted to,\u201d he said. \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

\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen, a lot of times it has to do with betting, and that is in the last five years. We\u2019ll see what happens with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Players Championship\u00a0title, and then when he got the better of Scottie Scheffler at the\u00a0RBC Heritage.<\/p>\n

The Englishman, speaking ahead of the 2026 Open at Royal Birkdale, said he believes Spieth\u2019s theory is well founded.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s definitely becoming a problem and the issue is, particularly in golf, 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. Obviously that is really hard to monitor, but it is definitely an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2022 US Open champion says the problem extends beyond on-course jeers to online abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just look at all the messages people get \u2013 footballers, tennis players, you name it \u2013 everyone\u2019s getting messages of, oh, you missed that penalty; you cost me this. Oh, you didn\u2019t make a birdie; cost me this.<\/p>\n

\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. I mean, you could see it this week. You go and type in a player\u2019s name who maybe isn\u2019t playing well \u2013 maybe someone who\u2019s favored to play well \u2013 you type the name into Twitter and you\u2019ll just see their name followed by abuse after abuse after abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult because I\u2019ve had 20 quid on England to win the World Cup, but at the same time, if it doesn\u2019t come in, I\u2019m not going to send a message to Harry Kane and be like, why did you play rubbish? There\u2019s obviously individuals that have that problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, obviously I don\u2019t condone gambling in the slightest. It\u2019s not really for me. It\u2019s a thing that me and my mate do every World Cup and Euros, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick says the abuse became bad enough that he no longer runs his own social media accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t do any of my social media anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve stayed off of it just because I have my own private accounts elsewhere, but I don\u2019t go looking for anything. I don\u2019t think the social media companies do a good job of managing that stuff. That\u2019s obviously a bigger conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, you just search my name, Tommy [Fleetwood]\u2019s name, anyone\u2019s name, and you will find just tweet after tweet of just straight abuse. It\u2019s not right. I\u2019m not going into someone\u2019s office or in their e-mails abusing them. I would say a lot of it comes down to the gambling. You see that a lot on the social media of, oh, this guy\u2019s favored this week. Make sure you lump on him and duh, duh, duh. That\u2019s obviously not conducive to a great atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you\u2019re getting personally attacked, it\u2019s just ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Fitzpatrick believes gambling is contributing to worsening crowd behavior in golf, backing Jordan Spieth\u2019s claim that betting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-689641","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\/689641","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=689641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}