Rory McIlroy was unhappy with fan behavior on his way to winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational this past weekend and his voice was heard by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
McIlroy criticized spectators for yelling his wife’s name after he took a shot during Saturday’s third round and supported limiting alcohol on the course.
Monahan addressed boorish fan behavior and the PGA Tour’s responsibility going forward at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on Wednesday.
Monahan said the Tour is continuing to monitor the situation and that alcohol sales are cut off at 5 p.m, per the Golf Channel.
“When you have people who aren’t behaving properly and they’ve had too much alcohol, then I agree [with McIlroy],” Monahan said. “In those incidences those people who are making it uncomfortable for a player alcohol sales should be cut off.”
McIlroy’s incident last week was just the latest in a series of unfortunate golf events. Justin Thomas had a fan ejected from the course last month after a spectator cheered for Thomas’ shot to get in a bunker, with the intention of helping Tiger Woods’ chances of winning the Honda Classic.
Thomas apologized for his actions later, and while Monahan didn’t address that incident specifically, he indicated that there are some things the pros have to live with, according to the Golf Channel.
“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,” Monahan said. “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.”
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