This is the one final stronghold; the one last defense of civility, decorum and even occasional solitude left in sports fandom.
Can we please, please keep it that way?
Let’s rid golf tournaments of the drunken, obnoxious, booing, berating, belittling fans that pollute other sports venues throughout our country.
Being at Bay Hill this week for the Arnold Palmer Invitational made me realize once again just how special golf tournaments are for fans who simply want to be fans and escape the clanging, clamoring cacophony of the heckling loudmouths who have infiltrated football stadiums, basketball arenas, soccer pitches and hockey rinks.
Oh, golf tournaments get loud when the situation calls for it — like when former Texas Longhorns star Scottie Scheffler made his tournament-clinching par putt on No. 18 at the Arnie on Sunday or when former Florida Gators stalwart Billy Horschel ran his potential tournament-tying birdie putt 3 feet past the hole.
In golf, you can hear the distant roars throughout the course when a contender makes a spectacular birdie.
And you can hear the distant groans throughout the course when a contender misses an easy par putt.
But rarely, if ever, do you hear fans get rude, crude, obscene or profane. Unless, of course, you saw what happened at the WM Phoenix Open three weeks ago when play was delayed twice for 10-15 minutes when idiot fans showered the green with hundreds of beer cans after Sam Ryder and Carlos Ortiz recorded holes-in-one.
The 16th hole at Phoenix is nicknamed “The Coliseum” because it is surrounded by a 20,000-seat grandstand. It should be called “The Kegger” because many of those seats are filled with students from nearby Arizona State University who spend all day getting snockered and turning a perfectly good golf tournament into the World’s Second-Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
In the weeks since the 16th green at Phoenix was turned into a giant beer sponge, there’s been talk of potentially using nets along the grandstands to keep debris off the green. I’ve got a better idea: Don’t allow fans to throw debris on the green. Don’t continue to encourage this rowdy behavior that’s been happening in Phoenix for years simply because the tournament is one of the most popular stops on the Tour. If you let this nonsense continue, it will become the trend instead of the norm.
“I want fans to be crazy, enjoy themselves and have fun out on the golf course,” said Horschel, who finished in a three-way tie for second Sunday at the Arnie. “I just want them to do it in a respectful way. I think that’s all we players would like. We played a year without fans, and it absolutely sucked, so it’s nice to see all the fans out there enjoying themselves.
“Just like in any sport, there are certain fans who are just idiots,” Horschel added. “There are idiot fans in Gator Nation, there’s idiot fans who are Seminoles and there are idiot fans who come out to tournaments on the PGA Tour. I mean, it’s a very small percentage. It’s tough to put all fans and supporters in one barrel and blame everybody when it’s only just a few.”
That’s why it’s up to the Tour and each individual Tour stop to nip this behavior in the bud before the moronic minority becomes the mindless majority.
At the risk of sounding like some old out-of-touch fuddy-duddy, can’t we have just one sport where fans are expected to be polite? Can’t we have just one sport where obscene, profane chants and hurled insults at the athletes are not acceptable?
Believe or not, golf is the one sport where many fans actually go to relax; to drink a few beers, watch a little golf, commune with nature, take in the beautiful natural scenery and wildlife — without having to deal with the noxious negativity and noise you hear at other venues. You go to a college football game or an NBA game and it’s like a rock concert; a golf tournament is supposed to be more like soothing symphony where there are certain crescendos throughout the show.
However, many golf tournaments see the immense crowds at Phoenix and are trying to foster a similar party-like atmosphere. At the Arnie, for instance, this is the first year of the White Claw Fan Deck — an entry-level hospitality area off the 15th green where many younger fans go to drink and have a good time.
Joie Chitwood, the tournament director of the Arnie, has let it be known that he is not against raucous crowds — as long as they are respectful crowds. Why? Because this is Arnold Palmer’s tournament and you don’t act like a fool at Arnie’s place. Chitwood pointed to how fans at Bay Hill reacted when Max Homa carded his first hole-in-one on the par-3 14th hole Saturday at The Arnie as the difference between Bay Hill and Phoenix.
“Max put it in the jar and the crowd hooted and hollered and cheered him on and did it the right way,” Chitwood said. “What Phoenix does is great and what they’ve have captured on No. 16 at their tournament is unique, but I think it works for them and doesn’t work for us.
“We do not throw things on greens. We do not throw things out on the course when people do phenomenal things. But we will cheer, and we will be enthusiastic, and we will have energy. When the golfers do something special, we should celebrate that and enjoy it. We will never be basketball trying to get someone to miss a free throw or things like that, but I think when we do see special accomplishments on the course, we should cheer and appreciate that. That’s what sports is all about.”
Let’s hope it stays that way.
Long live the Arnie and so many other wonderfully reverent golf tournaments — the one bastion we have left for fans who simply want to be fans; not haters, agitators and instigators.
