PGA Tour addresses alcohol situation: "It's being monitored"

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has sided with Rory McIlroy's recent comments of "limiting alcohol sales on the course", but declined to address Justin Thomas' situation where a fan shouted "get in the bunker" at the Honda Classic. 

Fan behaviour has become a hot-button topic on the PGA Tour in recent weeks, but Monahan has revealed the Tour is monitoring the situation closely moving forwards from this week's WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

“When you have people who aren’t behaving properly and they’ve had too much alcohol, then I agree [with McIlroy],” said Monahan. “In those incidences those people who are making it uncomfortable for a player alcohol sales should be cut off.”

RORY MCILROY: PGA TOUR NEEDS TO LIMIT ALCOHOL SALES ON THE COURSE

Fan behaviour became an issue with some players when Tiger Woods returned to competition at last month’s Genesis Open.

During the final round of the Honda Classic some four weeks ago, Thomas had a fan removed when he yelled for Thomas’ tee shot at the par-4 16th hole to “get in the bunker.”

Monahan declined to address Thomas’ situation at PGA National specifically, but he did seem to suggest that as interest grows and the Tour continues to attract more mainstream sports crowds, vocal fans will continue to be the norm.

RELATED: JT APOLOGISES FOR GETTING FAN EJECTED FROM HONDA

“I believe that there was more that went into it that preceded and in a situation like that we’re hopeful our players will reach out to our security staff and they can handle that,” said Monahan.

“[But] yelling, ‘get in the bunker,’ that’s part of what our players have to accept. In any sport, you go to an away game, in any other sport, and people aren’t rooting for you. Sometimes out here you’re going to have fans that aren’t rooting for you, but they can’t interfere with what you’re trying to do competitively.”