19th Hole
Is Rory McIlroy right about drunken fan behavior? GolfWRX members debate
Rory McIlroy’s brilliant Sunday performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is rightfully in the headlines, but his remarks after his Saturday round continue to spur debate.
McIlroy, it seems, was repeatedly heckled by a likely overserved gentleman. He told ESPN
“There was one guy out there who kept yelling my wife’s name. I was going to go over and have a chat with him. I don’t know, I think it’s gotten a little much, to be honest. I think that they need to limit alcohol sales on the course, or they need to do something because every week, it seems like guys are complaining about it more and more.”
McIlroy is right about “guys complaining more and more.” We’ve already heard from the Ulsterman and Justin Thomas on the issue of fan behavior this year. But is he right to suggest limiting alcohol? Is this more an issue of drunk idiots or idiots generally?
GolfWRX members discussed McIlroy’s remarks in a forum thread salmon1a started.
Christosterone positions golf in the pantheon of sport and says there’s no place for heckling
“What kind of a loser follows Rory around yelling his wife’s name?? One can imagine he was not simply yelling her name…but was saying something crass about her…Either we tolerate the behavior or we don’t…heckling is different from interrupting a stroke…And we all know heckling when we see it..The question is whether or not we allow it…Golf is a concentration sport on par with gymnastics [as related to focus]. Imagine if some idiot was heckling Simone Biles between events…they would be tossed”
Titleist670 on where to draw the line and the fact that heckling is bad for other fans too
“A little good natured ribbing is one thing, but when you start following players around and yelling personal insults I’m fine with getting these people off the course.”
“The other issue is some of the obnoxious folks ruin it for other fans. I’m sure there are kids after the rounds who would like autographs or to see their favorite players, but after 18 holes of dealing with drunks yelling mashed potatoes after every shot, there are guys who probably just want to get the F out of there.”
JaNelson38 puts some of the blame on volunteer marshals
“This is the #1 drawback to having volunteers act as marshals and crowd control…I personally think each venue should provide security each week to help alleviate this problem, even if it costs some purse money.”
Dave230 says the context doesn’t make it appropriate
“You shouldn’t have to listen to somebody pester you shouting your wife’s name all day around the course in any walk of life. It wouldn’t be accepted at anyone’s work. It would lead to a fight at a bar. So why should a professional sportsperson have to suck it up?”
MrWolf thinks something is brewing
“McIlroy is spot on, just like Justin Thomas. Players are clearly unhappy and I doubt it’s just those two…It’ll be interesting to see if this issue comes to a head between the players and the tour. It might be that player power is the only way to force the tour to actually do something about the plethora of d***heads that seem to attend tournaments these days.”
What do you think, GolfWRX members? Page through the 100 replies regarding this ongoing discussion that doesn’t look to be going anywhere anytime soon and offer your take. And if PGA Tour officials are considering action, they’d do well to do the same for a thorough treatment of the issue.
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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