Max Homa is currently striving to earn his spot in the top five of the BMW Championship held in Illinois. However, during his most recent appearance, a heckler tried to sabotage Homa’s outing and the golfer had something to say to the rude attendee.
While preparing to shoot a birdie putt on Saturday, Homa heard a man from the crowd shouting “Pull it!”. While the hackler attempted to distract the golf player, Homa holed his 5-footer. It turned out that the fan had placed a small bet on the hole and was hoping that Homa would miss the shot.
Homa already had a tough time with short putts due to the win at Olympia Fields that day. Prior to this shot, Homa had already missed a 2-foot putt and 5-footer on the seventh and 12th holes respectively.
The thing that made his birdie putt on the 17th hole harder was what he described as shoutings from a drunk fan. After Homa managed to sink his shot, he yelled and pointed at the fan as he was walking off the field.
Fan Disrupts Homa over $3 Bet on Golfer Missing the Shot, Homa Shares Opinion on the Impact of Golf Betting
The golfer was annoyed at the hackler, commenting on the man saying he “was probably a drunk — I hope, for his case, or else he’s just the biggest loser there is — but he was cheering and yelling at Chris for missing his putt short”. Homa shared that the man continued shouting and apparently his friend had made a $3 bet on Homa to make his putt. That is when the golfer heard the fan shouting very loudly “Pull it”. He managed to make the shot in the middle and then started yelling at the man, with the golfer’s caddie also shouting at the hackler.
Side bets on golf games have been popular among fans for years, with bets on the island-green 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass or the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open being particularly popular among punters. Nowadays, golf allows live betting and there has been a constant worry about whether that type of bet rule can interfere with the play.
While Homa was glad that fans were able to gamble on gold, he shared that he was worried about how the man in the crowd did not even care about the consequences. “I don’t know what he had to lose. He got kicked out, probably, but we were the last group”, said Homa. The golfer shared that there is always something on the players’ minds and it is up to them to stay focused but it can be really annoying when something like this happens. The golf player also shared that he is very appreciative of fans who keep quiet when golfers play.
Homa noted that what was extremely annoying was the fact that this fan was intentionally loud and it became clear that the whole ordeal was over a small bet of $3. “Not that money matters, but that’s a frustrating number”, said the golfer.
