{"id":8834,"date":"2026-07-17T18:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8834"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:23:41","slug":"at-the-open-golfs-fan-crisis-reaches-an-uncomfortable-tipping-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8834","title":{"rendered":"At the Open, golf&#8217;s fan crisis reaches an uncomfortable tipping point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article__sidebar-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph first\">BIRKDALE, England \u2014 The golf world went home from Shinnecock last month with one very uncomfortable question.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Why are golf fans behaving like that?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jordan Spieth needed only a few days <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/was-wyndham-clark-booing-betting-jordan-spieth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to find the answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBetting in golf is something that\u2019s going to have to be tackled here soon,\u201d Spieth said days after <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/wyndham-clarks-fan-abuse-psychologist-took-cover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wyndham Clark\u2019s decidedly confrontational<\/a> final-round victory at the U.S. Open, casting the problems of the sport\u2019s galleries on a simple boogeyman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Legalized gambling is still a gleaming-new development in American pro sports. In 2018, the Supreme Court\u2019s 6-3 decision in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2017\/16-476\">Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic<\/a><\/em> officially opened the door for the practice to spread across the United States legally, beginning a gold rush of well-funded legal sportsbooks and sports betting apps, and imperiling the employment status of a nation full of bookies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suggestion that gambling might have <em>some <\/em>adverse effects upon polite society is less novel. In fact, much of the reason for gambling\u2019s initial century of shunting away from the public eye (and into the smoke-filled phosphorescence of Las Vegas\u2019 casino floors) came back to concerns about safety, with Americans particularly worried about the integrity of their sporting events. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The eight years following that Supreme Court decision have done little to disabuse us of those concerns. Almost overnight, betting has reached near-ubiquity in American life, dominating television advertisements and app stores and idle behaviors. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/2026\/08\/reading-crisis-postliterate-age\/687618\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one study<\/a>, nearly two times as many Americans have placed a bet in the last year (57 percent) as have read a novel or short story (38 percent).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the sports world, these changes have arrived like a tidal wave, altering not just our perception of lines, scores, and players but also our very vernacular around the games we watch, as Clark himself reminded us on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe amount of times we hear guys in tournaments saying, \u2018Oh, Wyndham, I have you 30-to-1 to win this week or 100-to-1, I\u2019m betting on you,&#8217;\u201d Clark said. \u201cThat happens all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"g-block g-block-parone-video\" data-dockable=\"1\" data-delay-gated=\"10000\" data-gated=\"\">\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For those with eyes and ears, it is callous to suggest that sports betting has not altered\u00a0something about the way Americans watch golf. In the world of instantaneous bets, golf is unusually vulnerable \u2014 a sport whose constant action, intimacy and rules of decorum provide the viewer with an inordinate amount of power to alter the outcome of a shot or moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI would say every golfer that\u2019s played a professional tournament has had a message of abuse from someone that is related to gambling,\u201d said Matt Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there is just one problem with taking Spieth\u2019s word as gospel \u2014 with blaming all of the sport\u2019s recent behavioral problems upon betting. A problem that hangs over the Open Championship like a bright-yellow 18th hole leaderboard: Sports betting is legal <em>here<\/em>, too. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It does not take long after arriving at the Open \u2014 <em>any <\/em>Open Championship \u2014 to realize something is different about the way golf is consumed in the UK. Fans do not scream and heckle. They do not joust or deliver brain-dead screams in the follow-through. The ones above driving age do not beg for attention from players.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__sidebar-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You don\u2019t need to take my word for it, though. Listen to any of the players in the field this weekend or any weekend at the Open, all of whom agree annually and with tiresome unanimity: These are the best crowds anywhere in golf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou don\u2019t have to hit it to three feet to get a round of applause. I think that\u2019s what players really like, hitting a really good shot with a cross-wind to 15, 20 feet, the crowd really acknowledge that,\u201d Justin Rose said. \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the things we love the most about this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If betting is the boogeyman it is made out to be, then how is it that the crowds are so good at the Open, held annually in the country where sports betting has been fully legalized since 1962? And held this week in the small town of Southport, where sportsbooks presently operate in no fewer than 15 brick-and-mortar establishments?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLook, we\u2019ve had gambling over here for forever,\u201d Rory McIlroy said Tuesday. \u201cI would say the crowd behavior has been pretty good for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the contradiction that hangs over golf as the attention turns to the final tournament of the 2026 major season. Almost everybody agrees that <em>something <\/em>must be done to rectify the behavior that has become all too common at events over the last 12 months, where players and the crowd have engaged in what could only be called the physical manifestation of an internet comments section. But the easiest solution \u2014 gambling \u2014 is only a half-measure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be clear, nobody is advocating to do <em>nothing <\/em>about the gambling issue facing pro golf; it is as large and as serious as any issue facing the sport over the next several decades. But at <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/open-championship-existential-questions-rory-mcilroy-scottie-scheffler\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Open Championship<\/a>, we are forced to face an uncomfortable tipping point in the argument: What if gambling isn\u2019t the <em>entire <\/em>solution?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThings have evolved,\u201d Justin Rose said. \u201cI think people have access to how they\u2019ve seen moments unfold on the golf course or other behaviors, crowds behaving, and it becomes the norm. Everything becomes normalized.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The human brain is a fundamentally lazy organ. Over time, human beings have developed what researchers call \u201csimplicity bias\u201d \u2014 choosing to believe simple solutions largely because understanding complex ones involves a lot more cognitive exertion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the Open, though, we can face the problem of fan behavior with no such simplicity. There <em>is <\/em>something different about American golf events in 2026, and that thing is likely about more than just the betting app on your phone. It is about something deeper in our mid-2020s culture, and very likely something uglier. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s just the way of the world at the moment for sure,\u201d Rose said. \u201cEverything is much more accessible. People feel like they\u2019re a lot more part of the moment and can influence the moment. We know about sports betting. We know about this whole other narrative, and people are coming much closer \u2014 more closely involved, I think, in the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__sidebar-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The golf world can forget about its worries for at least a week. It\u2019s likely to be another pleasant weekend from the stands at Royal Birkdale, as it always is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if you were hoping for an easy answer to golf\u2019s crowd problems, you might leave disappointed. The questions sound more polite when they\u2019re asked over here, but the answers are just as uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You can reach the author at <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/open-championship-golf-fan-crisis-gambling\/mailto:james.colgan@golf.com\">james.colgan@golf.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"youtube-facade\" data-content=\"&#10;&lt;figure class=\" wp-block-embed=\"\" is-type-video=\"\" is-provider-youtube=\"\" wp-block-embed-youtube=\"\" wp-embed-aspect-16-9=\"\" wp-has-aspect-ratio=\"\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"5 things You Need to Know About the Open at Royal Birkdale\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KGbSrU6KfTA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;&gt;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BIRKDALE, England \u2014 The golf world went home from Shinnecock last month with one very uncomfortable question. Why are golf fans behaving like that? Jordan Spieth needed only a few days to find the answer. \u201cBetting in golf is something that\u2019s going to have to be tackled here soon,\u201d Spieth said days after Wyndham Clark\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rory-mcilroy-the-open-championship.jpg?_t=1784216786","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}