19th Hole
GolfWRX members have plenty to say about Justin Thomas’ comments on ‘unacceptable’ fan behavior
At last week’s Genesis Open, after two days of golf grouped with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas had seen all the boorish fan behavior he could take, and he decided to say something about it.
And GolfWRX members had a strong response to Thomas’ reponse, as it were. First, here’s what JT had to say last week.
“Yeah, it was pretty wild this first couple days. It was all right for a little bit today, but there at the end it got a little out of hand…I guess it’s a part of it now, unfortunately. I wish it wasn’t. I wish people didn’t think it was so amusing to yell and all that stuff while we’re trying to hit shots and play.”
“I don’t know – I guess they just think it’s funny,” Thomas said. “It might be funny to them, and obviously people think of it differently and I could just be overreacting. But when people are now starting to time it wrong and get in people’s swings, is just completely unacceptable really. We’re out here playing for a lot of money, a lot of points, and a lot of things can happen. And you would just hate to have, hate to see in the future something happen down the line because of something like that.”
You can almost hear the “he’s absolutely right” and “spoiled pro athlete” contingents readying their arms!
Cool Percussion is in the second squadron, and he started a thread with this venomous post.
“Is Justin Thomas justified in his complaints? On one hand, I can see how large galleries can be a distraction to golfers. (I know if I had to play in front of one it would cost me more than “a half shot per round”)
“On the other hand: POOR BABY! Aww poor little Justin is playing in front of a big-boy gallery now. Boo Hoo. Waaaaahhhhh!!! It must be so hard for you to be paired with Tiger and have to deal with the kinds of galleries that he has had to deal with FOR VIRTUALLY HIS ENTIRE CAREER! Grow-up you spoiled, whiny brat.”
“Here’s an idea, Justin: continue to play like you did this week—keep yourself off the top page of the leaderboard—and then no one will want to come see you and you won’t have to deal with large crowds anymore.”
Now, it has to be said, there’s a difference between large crowds, the Tiger Woods crowd, and idiots who yell during a golfer’s backswing. Thomas seemed mostly upset about the latter. Cool Percussion seems to be conflating all three.
Alikane responds with
“I think he has a legitimate complaint. None of the players like distractions when they are hitting shots. Distractions can alter outcomes of tournaments.”
blink 3665 defends JT in this hot take
“I don’t have a problem with his complaint. He didn’t say that a large gallery was the source of his frustration. It was the yelling and pictures while swinging. His quote seems to have a friendly, but annoyed, demeanor. If anything I think he would be in the right to voice more frustration than he did.
“Yes, the large galleries are something that groupings with TW will have to deal with, but that doesn’t give them the right to affect the games of the players by distracting during a swing.
“So why should anyone have to put up with that? Why does his stance against “loud, annoying, drunk, inconsiderate dbs” mean he is a “spoiled whiney brat”? I think that makes him normal.”
Kjboisen doesn’t agree with the percussionist
“Dislike your perspective that JT needs to get used to those larger galleries. I don’t think that is the problem. it’s the drunken morons who yell on backswings and on important putts. If there is going to be noise, make it a constant noise. If there is supposed to be relative silence, and I hear someone yell some B.S on my backstroke for an important putt, it would bother me too.”
“I don’t think the crowds bother anyone unless someone on Tour lives under a damn rock and has never played with a group of friends who will do anything to keep a match alive… conditioned to the distracts. But the other BS is unnecessary and more precaution needs to be taken in my opinion. Active crowd patrol and searching for over-rowdy individuals to remove from the situation before it becomes a problem.”
Dciccoritti points out a likely accelerant
“Remove the booze in all sporting events. If you can’t enjoy a sporting event without getting drunk and stupid, you shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
Golfandfishing draws an interesting connection
“Every week there are posts on here calling out the stupidity of people yelling scrambled eggs bababooey get in the hole woohoo and 5 pages of posts then agree it is stupid. Justin Thomas says the same thing and he’s a spoiled brat?”
The thread is currently six pages long and more than 170 replies deep. In other words, the membership has plenty to say on the topic.
What do you think? Check out the rest of the replies and join the discussion.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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