Rahm calls on PGA Tour action against hecklers "It's more often than you think"
Jon Rahm has called on the PGA Tour to clamp down on hecklers at events, after Max Homa and Chris Kirk were verbally abused at last week's BMW Championship.
The issue has become a hot topic in recent days, after one spectator at Olympia Fields called on Homa to 'pull' a putt as he was in his backstroke. Fortunately the American - who will make his Ryder Cup debut in September - went on to make his attempt, but the shout only amplified the problem of crowd calls at Tour events.
The heckle against Homa appeared to have been done over a bet between friends, with the Tour star revealing afterwards that the spectator in question had wagered for him to miss the birdie putt.
Homa admitted he and his caddie Joe Greiner were quick to hit back at the abusing fan. "I just started yelling at him, and then Joe [Greiner] yelled at him," he revealed post-round. "I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is the one thing I’m worried about.
"I don’t know what he had to lose. He got kicked out probably, and we were the last group.” Ahead of this week's seasonal finale at the Tour Championship the discussion surrounding heckling was put to world No. 3 Rahm, and whilst he believes crowd control is difficult, he would like to see the PGA Tour take action.
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He commented: "I think the Tour maybe should look into it because you don't want it to get out of hand, right? It's very easy, very, very easy in golf if you want to affect somebody. You're so close, you can yell at the wrong time, and it's very easy for that to happen.
Jon Rahm is competing at the Tour Championship this week (PA)"So I think they could look into it, but at the same time, it would be extremely difficult for the Tour to somehow control the 50,000 people scattered around the golf course, right? So it's a complicated subject. You don't want it to get out of control, but you also want to have the fans to have the experience they want to have."
Admitting that crowd calls happen more than some people might think, he 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, yeah. But not only that, on the tee and down the fairway. I mean, luckily golf fans are pretty good for the most part and you're hearing the positive, 'I got 20 bucks you make birdie here' things like that. But no, it's more often than you think." The heckling towards Homa and Kirk is the second high-profile incident in the past month, after Open champion Brian Harman admitted he was abused on the way to his win at Royal Liverpool.
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