OLYMPIA FIELDS, Unwell. — Max Homa skilled the potential for disruption with betting at PGA Tour occasions when he mentioned a fan yelled in the midst of his 5-foot birdie putt Saturday within the BMW Championship.
Homa already was battling brief putts on a windy day at Olympia Fields, having missed a 2-foot putt on the seventh gap and a 5-footer at No. 12.
What bothered him was what he described as a drunk fan on the seventeenth gap, proper after Chris Kirk had left his 18-foot birdie putt about 1 foot brief. Homa holed his 5-footer, then shouted and pointed on the man as he walked off the inexperienced.
“There was a most likely drunk — I hope, for his case, or else he is simply he greatest loser there may be — however he was cheering and yelling at Chris for lacking his putt brief,” Homa mentioned. “And he stored yelling — one in all them had $3 for me to make mine — and I acquired to the again of my again stroke and he yelled, ‘Pull it!’ fairly loud.
“I made it proper within the center, after which I simply began yelling at him.”
Followers have been putting facet bets on golf for years, particularly on holes just like the island-green seventeenth on the TPC Sawgrass or the infamous sixteenth gap on the Phoenix Open. Golf now permits for reside betting, and one concern all the time has been whether or not that would disrupt play.
“I like that individuals can gamble on golf, however that’s the one factor I am nervous about,” Homa mentioned. “I do not know what he needed to lose. He acquired kicked out most likely, and we had been the final group.”
Homa mentioned he known as the fan a clown with “perhaps one other phrase,” and that caddie Joe Greiner was most likely slightly extra direct.
“It is simply all the time one thing that is in your thoughts,” Homa mentioned of followers shouting. “It is on us to remain centered or no matter, but it surely’s simply annoying when it occurs. … Followers are so nice about being quiet after we play. I feel they’re superior. When anyone ever talks, it is so unintentional.
“It simply sucks when it is extremely intentional, and his good friend particularly mentioned it was for $3. Not that cash issues, however that is a irritating quantity.”
A minimum of it ended properly for Homa. He made the birdie. He made a 7-foot par putt on the 18th gap and regardless of a troublesome day was nonetheless two pictures inside Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick.
“It was good to make it proper within the center,” Homa mentioned. “And, hopefully, he needed to pay his buddy that $3 instantly on the best way out of the property.”
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