Jon Rahm on gambling interactions in crowd on PGA Tour: "We hear it every round"
Jon Rahm reveals fan gambling interactions on PGA Tour events are "very, very present".
Jon Rahm has revealed gambling-related interactions happen "every single round" on the PGA Tour in light of last week's incident where Max Homa called a spectator a "clown" during the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields.
The moment occurred during Homa's third round as he played alongside Chris Kirk.
Homa, who has now booked an automatic Ryder Cup spot, was standing over a four-foot putt on the 17th when he heard someone yell during his backswing.
He also noticed another spectator shout something as Kirk lined up his 18-foot putt.
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Turns out, the spectators were gambling for the mind-boggling figure of $3.
Homa's caddie Joe Greiner also got involved and had some choice words for the duo.
Although Rahm had not previously been made aware of the betting incident with Homa last week, the Spaniard confirmed he hears fan interactions like that one all the time when he is competing on the PGA Tour.
Here's the interaction between Rahm and a reporter ahead of this week's Tour Championship:
Q. Off of what happened with Max this past weekend, have you had a gambling-related interaction with a fan and then about --
JON RAHM: What happened? I don't know what happened.
Q. Well, there was a fan who was trying to get into Max's head and talk during one of his putts and said he had a bet on him missing the putt. Max made the putt. But obviously it was a concern that the fan is trying to impact the game. So my question is, have you had an incident like that with a fan and do you have concerns about that going forward?
JON RAHM: I feel like we hear it every single round. 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.
Q. Is that something --
JON RAHM: It's not caught on TV maybe, but it's something that happens, yeah.
Q. Is that something that you think the TOUR ought to step in and take control over or is it just part of the cost of being that close?
JON RAHM: You know, in a game like this where you're allowed to have your favorites, but it's not a team aspect, right, it's not a home team against a visiting team, 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.
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.
Rahm is going in search of his first FedEx Cup title this week.
He starts four strokes behind Scottie Scheffler in fourth on 6-under par.
The World No.3 admitted he is still not a huge fan of the staggered start.
If Zach Johnson dodges Brooks Koepka for a Ryder Cup pick then he truly hates LIV Golf
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