At Shinnecock Hills, Scottie Scheffler was playing for his career Grand Slam, and that too on his 30th birthday. So fans were clearly rooting for him. As a result, it was Wyndham Clark who had to face the wrath of heckles. Throughout the final round, he was listening to comments like “Don’t choke, Wyndham!” and “Get in the bunker!”

Within weeks, the R&A unveiled The Open Commitment. It is a formal fan code of conduct created for Royal Birkdale. While it didn’t explicitly cite the US Open, the reason behind it was certainly the rude fan behavior the golf world has seen in recent years. Some players have associated it with betting, and now, Rory McIlroy has shared his two cents on the same.

“I wouldn’t say — look, we’ve had gambling over here for forever, and I would say the crowd behaviour has been pretty good for the most part. Obviously it’s a newer thing in the United States. Yeah, you could see how people that have a bet could — you know, it’s a very easy game to influence. The crowd aren’t far away from you,” Rory McIlroy said ahead of the Open Championship. “I feel like certain things have happened to me over the years where it’s definitely been because of that, but it’s very rare, I would say.”

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“I feel like it’s policed pretty well. In every crowd of thousands of people, you’re going to have your few bad eggs here and there, but for the most part, I think golf crowds are pretty respectful.”

As the Northern Irishman pointed out, betting in Europe was codified as early as the mid‑19th century with the Gambling Act 1845 and Betting Houses Act 1853. Then, the Betting and Gaming Act 1960 legalized off‑course betting shops. Online sports betting followed in the 1990s, and the Gambling Act 2005 modernized licensing and regulation. On the contrary, it is a little new in the US. In May 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and handed states the power to legalize and regulate sports wagering.

Since it is new, sports betting has grown significantly in the US in recent years. As a result, fans have become more involved in their favorite players and teams to win. This becomes even more worrisome in golf because influencing the game is much easier than in any other sport. Jon Rahm explained the situation clearly in a 2023 interview.

“That happens way more often than you guys may hear. I mean, it’s very, very present,” Rahm told reporters Tuesday. “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.”

There are many others, such as Jordan Spieth, who have said the same.

“The one thing that I’ll point out is I do think that betting in golf is something that’s going to have to be tackled here soon,” Spieth said when asked about the Wyndham Clark incident.

Rory McIlroy experienced one of the rudest crowds in the sport’s history during the 2025 Ryder Cup. Almost every member of the European team was targeted by fans at Bethpage Black. Chants of “F— you, Rory!” had started even before he took the first shot. In the end, the Northern Irishman had to go on and say that the fans were rooting against them more than they were supporting the American professionals. This showed in his comments at the Ryder Cup, too.

“I believe golf ought to be held to a superior standard than what we witnessed this week,” he had said.

But despite facing these heckles, Rory McIlroy still believes that not all fans are the same. He emphasized that golf instills respect for one another. In fact, he even said that things will be different at the 2027 Ryder Cup in Ireland.