Rory McIlroy addresses issue of gambling hecklers in golf: ‘Slippery slope’

Rory McIlroy sat down for a wide-ranging pre-tournament press convention on the 2023 Tour Championship on Wednesday and provided his opinions on the most popular matters in golf.

From LIV Ryder Cup drama to Scottie Scheffler’s “unbelievable” season (which GOLF’s Dylan Dethier broke down right here), Rory didn’t draw back from any question.

That features a query about one of the thorniest points going through professional golf’s future: the intersection of golf gambling and hecklers at professional occasions.

Players have been elevating the alarm about spectators influencing on-course motion for gambling functions all yr, however a high-profile incident involving Max Homa final weekend on the BMW Championship reignited the dialogue. Homa and enjoying associate Chris Kirk have been harassed by a fan shouting at them to overlook putts, presumably associated to bets he had made.

“I love that people can gamble on golf,” Homa mentioned on the BMW. “But that is the one thing I’m worried about.”

That particular wrinkle — followers’ potential affect on event play — can be on the heart of McIlroy’s considerations.

“We’ve talked about this at the board and the PAC level for a few years. And it is a bit of a slippery slope because I don’t think there’s any — maybe basketball and you can sit courtside, but I think it’s a different environment where people can really affect the play out here,” McIlroy mentioned Wednesday.

The four-time main champion recognized figuring out profitable enforcement procedures as the important thing to stopping the issue from getting worse.

“So, look, as long as it’s policed the right way and as long as there’s measures put in place for hopefully things like what happened to Max Homa last Saturday not to happen,” McIlroy continued. “We’re all for people out here having a good time and being able to put something on an outcome, but as long as they don’t feel like they can come here and influence that outcome, I think that’s important.”

Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm shared related considerations this week.

“I think the Tour maybe should look into it because you don’t want it to get out of hand,” Rahm mentioned. “It’s very straightforward, very, very straightforward in golf if you wish to have an effect on any individual. You’re so shut, you’ll be able to yell on the unsuitable time, and it’s very straightforward for that to occur.

“I feel like we hear it every single round,” Rahm added. “That happens way more often than you guys may hear. I mean, it’s very, very present. In golf, spectators are very close, and even if they’re not directly talking to you, they’re close enough to where if they say to their buddy, ‘I bet you 10 bucks he’s going to miss it,’ you hear it. So it happens more often than you think.”

As for what followers can do to assist with the issue, McIlroy closed out his feedback on the topic with some easy recommendation for spectators attending occasions.

“If I was here as a fan, I just want to go out and try to watch the best players in the world and have a good time doing that.”

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes tales on GOLF.com, and manages the model’s e-newsletters, which attain greater than 1.4 million subscribers every month. A former two-time intern, he additionally helps preserve GOLF.com buzzing outdoors the news-breaking tales and repair content material offered by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech group in the event of new merchandise and modern methods to ship an enticing web site to our viewers.