As golf continues its shift into the mainstream, the sport is changing.
The way crowds in professional golf are beginning to behave is concerning to many of the players. Scott Van Pelt reported after the US Open that players are privately discussing the way fans are acting from behind the ropes.
Advertisement
It was a huge issue at Bethpage Black during the Ryder Cup, and the European team was subject to waves of abuse from the New York crowd. It became a leading topic once again at the US Open in New York, when Wyndham Clark was rooted against, hard.
This is a trend that worries many traditionalist golfers, who expect fans to pay all players the respect they deserve during competition. But CBS analyst Johnson Wagner thinks that if one rule were changed at the majors, this problem would be solved immediately.
Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
Johnson Wagner suggests banning phones from major championships
It seems now that whenever a player takes a shot, he’s surrounded by a sea of cameras, as the fans from the galleries take out their phones and record every swing. At every event, footage emerges of fans heckling players to get a rise out of them.
Advertisement
That’s why Wagner thinks the other major championships should take a leaf out of Augusta National’s book and ban phones from their events entirely.
Speaking on Golf on CBS’ YouTube channel, he said, “My first, I think, five years on the PGA Tour, there were no cell phones allowed, maybe until 2011, 2010. And so it was glorious out there.
“But the PGA Tour felt like, especially Thursday, Friday, when you’ve got all these corporate partners and then people are taking off work to be there, you had to allow them to stay connected.
“But I think major championships are different. I think it would be an incredible thing because it disgusts me personally when a guy’s in the gallery, and there’s 20 people around him with the best seat in the house, and they’re watching it through their phone, videoing it for what are you going to do, watch that later? Why don’t you just open your eyes and take in the event?
Advertisement
“Maybe that’s the get off my lawn, old man talking here, but I would love to see it because to Patrick’s point, these dudes are out there trying to get a rise out of a player while another one of their friends is videoing it so they can put it on their social media channels, and it’s disgusting. So, I think taking phones away would do would service a lot of these problems.”
The Masters has the best environment on the golfing calendar, as fans are totally locked in on the action without their phones. Golf would do well to replicate that across all events.
Rory McIlroy’s interaction at US Open proves Johnson Wagner right
We saw the very thing Wagner is talking about at the US Open, as Rory McIlroy got into it with a fan.
Advertisement
During Sunday’s play at Shinnecock, a video emerged online of a fan repeatedly screaming at Rory McIlroy, “Get in the bunker”, as he took his tee shot.
McIlroy responded by motioning his arms in front of his body as if to call the fan overweight as he walked away from the tee box.
You simply don’t see this behavior at The Masters. That’s partly because fans respect the event and the golf course, and partly because there are no cameras to play up to. Wagner is right about that.
So, to fix the fan problems golf is having, Wagner’s solution makes perfect sense.
Read the full article here
